Editing Tod Browning (section)

== Posthumous critical appraisal ==
[[Vivian Sobchack]] wrote: "...Browning was sometimes called the [[Edgar Allan Poe]] of the cinema' [and] much admired by the [[Surrealism|surrealists]]. Browning's creations were, of course, a commercial cinema as well. The films suggest a man of humor and compassion who had a dark and melancholic fascination with physical deformity and with the exotic and extraordinary, and yet who observed the oddities of life with unprejudiced objectivity and some delight. A [[White Southerners|Southerner]] who ran away with the circus; a former Vaudevillian and magician who traveled the world before he became a filmmaker, a [literary] aesthete and a beer drinker, above all a storyteller, Browning was both a poet and a pragmatist."<ref>Sobchack, 2006 p. 36</ref> She identifies four plots or [[mise-en-scène]] in which Browning presents his themes:
{{blockquote|
1) "Exotic melodramas", in which the film's physical setting generates much of the plot and action;<br />2) "Crook melodramas", whose main characters are criminals (primarily thieves and swindlers);<br />3) "Bizarre melodramas", on physically deformed or freakishly designed characters;<br />4) a minor group, "Mystery melodramas", deal with solving a crime (usually a murder), often debunking supernatural explanations in the process.<ref>Sobchack, 2006 p. 22: this passage is reformatted, identical text.</ref>}}

Sobchack points out that the plot synopsis for these films, considered independently of their cinematic treatments, appear "ludicrous" or "bizarre" in conception. Browning's handling of the material, however, produce "powerful and disturbing realizations on the screen."<ref name=":1" />

The melodramas that Browning wrote and directed for MGM and Universal are formulaic manifestations of his "compulsive" preoccupation with themes of "moral and sexual frustration, interchangeable guilt [and] patterns of human repulsion and attraction."<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 p. 9<br />Conterio, 2018: "Fixated on human disfigurement and underworld figures, the films are marked by a stark, obsessive aesthetic and themes of compulsion."</ref>

Alfred Eaker found: "Browning himself continues to be dismissed by less insightful critics, who evaluate the man and his work by contemporary entertainment standards or even accuse the great empathetic artist of exploitation.  Browning's standing still remains low.  Neither he, nor any of his films have received a single honor by a major film recognition or preservation institution."<ref name=":4" />

According to Stuart Rosenthal: "Although the work of any [[auteur]] will repeatedly emphasize specific thoughts and ideas, Browning is so aggressive and unrelenting in his pursuit of certain themes that he appears to be neurotically fixated on them. He is inevitably attracted to situations of moral and sexual frustration...[w]hat sets Browning apart is his abnormal fascination with the deformed creatures who populate his films—a fascination that is not always entirely intellectual, and one in which he takes extreme delight."<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 p. 9:</ref> Rosenthal offers this analysis of the director's style and themes:

{{blockquote|The adjective most often applied to Browning's cinema is 'obsessional'...he expresses his obsessional content in a manner that may properly be described as compulsive. Certain shots, compositions and montages appear again and again in Browning's ''oeuvre'' [leaving] an impression of frank repetition. In fact, he has a limited catalog of themes and effects from which compiles each of his pictures. The overall scope of the entire Browning filmography is not significantly broader than any single entry in it.<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 pp. 8–9: Composite quote.</ref>}}

Rosenthal assigns four thematic categories to Browning's films: 1) Reality vs. Appearance, in which an individual's social exterior (physical beauty, the trappings of authority or professional status) are exposed as facades masking cruel or criminal behavior. (ex. ''[[The Unholy Three (1925 film)|The Unholy Three]]'' (1925), ''[[Where East Is East]]'' (1929));<ref name=":2" /> 2) Sexual Frustration, often involving a "sacred" father-child or other kinship relation in which "a man's offspring represent extensions of his own sexuality" provoking a protective response to sexual insults from outsiders. (ex. ''[[The Road to Mandalay (1926 film)|The Road to Mandalay]]'' (1926), ''[[West of Zanzibar (1928 film)|West of Zanzibar]]'' (1928)).;<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 p. 23: "...Sexual frustration... may be experienced first hand or indirectly, through a close relative."</ref> 3)&nbsp;Conflict of Opposing Tendencies within an Individual, leading to a loss of identity when irreconcilable character traits in a person produces alter egos. Author [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s ''[[Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'' explores this "intractable frustration." (ex. ''[[Outside the Law (1920 film)|Outside the Law]]'' (1921), ''[[The Blackbird]]'' (1926)).;<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 p. 23: Also "...the symbolic separation of the pair of qualities into two individuals." And pp. 38–39: Jekyll and Hyde analogy.</ref> and finally 4) Inability to Assign Guilt, in which a character resorts to violence or criminal acts in order to avenge injustice, and guilt or blame remains ambiguous. (ex. ''[[The Unknown (1927 film)|The Unknown]]'' (1927), ''[[Freaks (1932 film)|Freaks]]'' (1932))<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 p. 23: "...the avenger must often sin in order to punish the sins of others [and] guilt cannot be clearly fixed."</ref> For Rosenthal, the factor that unifies all these thematic patterns is frustration: "Frustration is Browning's dominant theme."<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 p. 23</ref><ref>Grindon. 2006 p. 175: Grindon cites Rosenthal's list here.</ref>