The fact that this movie destroyed the carrier of Tod Browning (Dracula) amazes me. The idea of the movie is really innovative for the 20s, even if the original picture is considered to be even more brutal and totally different from this shorter final version and for that, I will not consider what is told about the original script.

The plot has been said to be predictive, and it is, it is also said to be unrealistic, which is not. There is no fantasy in a person taking advantage of another in a situation of one-sided love. Hans loves Cleopatra, a man with Dwarfism loves the epitome of beauty which is represented by Cleopatra, she, knowing that can manipulate him easily, takes advantage of that, I can't see how is that fantastical.

Though the movie depicts the Olga's and Henry Victor's character as the villains, I didn't feel that only the beauty and "normal" people are actually villains since there is Venus, a character that I found it rather likable, especially with its opening scene showing her dumping Hercules, and Phroso character is also likable. A clown that is kind to everyone in the circus. Even the scene that least like with Phroso - him forgetting his date with Venus or him getting too flirty with the twins for the sake of entertainment - is not horrible. I still find Venus the most likable character.
And from here we have the one being fooled, Hans. From the start of the movie, I didn't even have a chance to see him as a lovable character. While he states, in the beginning, his love for Frieda, he ends up marrying Cleoprata. This makes him unlikable to a certain degree, while at the same time understandable for why he got so psychotic in the ending.

There is also the secondary characters, Roscoe seems a jackass and because of that I didn't get what one of the Twins saw in him, his best scene being when the other Twin's fiance appears and he is actually polite for once - which it doesn't make him any more of a douche. I didn't find the scenes of the "freaks" entertaining, but I did like the scene of Schlitze and Phroso. And for the least the worse, those fat asses that kept antagonizing everyone in the circus and that scene where Hercules punches Josephine Joseph without any kind of consequence.

The ending was actually bad, not the scene where Hercules gets its due or Cleopatra - whatever the hell happens to her, but the added scene where Frieda forgives Hans for his foolishness. And I also found it to be extremely weird the scene where they show what happens to Cleopatra, she turned into a chicken? WTF happened? Weird ass ending for me.