Coming to NYC’s IFC Center and to LA’s Arena Cinema tomorrow, Friday, June 27: BOUND BY FLESH
Leslie Zemeckis’ reintroduction of long-forgotten vaudeville superstars debuted at the 2012 Hollywood Film Festival. It went on to screen at Chicago, AFI Fest, and Santa Barbara, among others.
Born in Brighton, England in 1908, and not expected to survive, conjoined twins Violet and Daisy were given over to their unwed mother’s employer, Mary Hilton, who soon saw the opportunity to make money exhibiting them to paying customers, eventually touring them around Europe and beyond as they grew up. When her daughter married an equally exploitative manager named Myer Myers, the twins were primed for their American debut on the vaudeville circuit, soon commanding top salaries that lined the pockets of their handlers. Kept isolated and treated inhumanely, the Hilton twins eventually sued for emancipation, garnering a great deal of publicity in the process. Unfortunately, though gaining their independence, they quickly proved unprepared to handle their own business affairs, and, that, combined with the decline of the vaudeville circuit against the popularity of cinema, saw their careers sharply diminish, with no real-world skills to fall back on. Though they appeared in the classic FREAKS, as well as CHAINED FOR LIFE, a later exploitation flick based on their lives, they became largely forgotten until their deaths in 1969. Despite such a rich backstory, Zemeckis’ film is hampered by a headscratchingly anachronistic and distracting soundtrack, and a workmanlike use of too-limited archival materials. While some of the latter proves fascinating, like the opening footage of a publicity stunt which saw Daisy petitioning to be allowed to marry, other footage and photos are recycled more than once to diminishing returns.
what (not) to doc 