THE MAN WHO WROTE 'FREAKS'

"It is truly remarkable how speedily one can ride the devil out of a woman--with spurs!"

- Tod Robbins, "Spurs"

After filming THE IRON MAN (released April 30, 1931), Tod Browning's contract with Universal ran out. Various scenarios have been asserted on what happened afterwards, including that he was fired (as a result of his chronic alcoholism) or simply "broke" with the studio. In any event, he was offered a lucrative deal by the young and brilliant Irving Thalberg to work at MGM. Browning readily accepted and signed a contract on June 7, 1931. After a two-month vacation in Europe, he returned where Thalberg had him set up to direct the big-budget mystery film, ARSÉNE LUPIN. The picture was also touted with bringing together John and Lionel Barrymore for the first time to the screen. However, Browning had other ideas on what his first project with MGM would be.

Tod Browning by Ruth Harriet Louise. Louise was the first woman
photographer to work for a Hollywood studio. She was hired as
MGM's chief portrait photographer from 1925 until 1930.

The financial success of Universal's DRACULA attracted other studios' interest in this new and potentially lucrative genre. Even VARIETY took notice and published a short piece entitled, "U Has Horror Cycle All to Self", which reported: "With DRACULA making money at the box office for Universal, other studios are looking for horror tales--but very squeamishly. Producers are not certain whether nightmare pictures have a box office pull, or whether DRACULA is just a freak." They had no idea the implication of the last word of their news item.

Harry Earles as Tweedledee in The Unholy Three.

Browning soured on the idea of what Thalberg served up to him for his first production at Metro. Instead, he wanted to film a picture based on a short story entitled, "Spurs", originally suggested to him by Harry Earles, a little person who played the part of cigar-chomping crook Tweedledee in Browning's THE UNHOLY THREE with Lon Chaney in 1925. Some years earlier, Browning had talked Metro into purchasing the story for $8,000 and he began developing it as early as 1927. Now he wanted to dust off the manuscript languishing on the script room shelf and turn it into a feature-length film.

Author Tod Robbins.

Clarence Aaron "Tod" Robbins was born in Brooklyn on June 25, 1888 to a well-to-do family. He was married five times.

His first published story, "The Terrible Three" was serialized in four installments in ALL-STORY WEEKLY (July-August 1917) and as a complete novel in FANTASTIC NOVELS in 1948. It was later made into the film, THE UNHOLY THREE in 1925 directed by Browning and starring Lon Chaney.

During his career he wrote numerous novels, short story collections and one volume of collected verse. Never quite breaking into the mainstream he continued to write for pulp fiction magazines.

Fantastic Novels, March 1949.

As well a being an author, Robbins was also a life-long athlete and fitness devotee. He combined his two interests and won $3,000 for a boxing story he wrote for a contest in PHYSICAL CULTURE. The first part ran in the January 1922 issue and was accompanied by photographs of him in various athletic poses.

Prior to the outbreak of World War II, Robbins emigrated from New York to the French Rivera. When the Nazis occupied France in June 1940, he made the unwise decision to remain. As a result, he was imprisoned in a concentration camp until the end of the war. He died in France on May 10, 1949 at the age of 60, likely a result of his physical hardships of just a few years before.

The story "Spurs" was first published in the February 1923 issue of MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE. Like much of the rest of his fiction, it is odd and eccentric and many subtexts can be interpreted from this darkly twisted tale. However, taken on the surface, "Spurs" is an unsettling and unique tale of horror.

"Spurs" by Tod Robbins: