Late Friday TCM is going for broke, carny-style.  Starting at 1 am central/2 am eastern, TCM has lined up a handful of cult movies featuring little people and other actors of unusual physical appearance.   

The first movie up is 1938's The Terror of Tiny Town, which is a Western musical drama (it's like I'm picking words out of a hat, right?) cast entirely with lttle people, many of whom would go on to be munchkins in The Wizard of Oz the following year.  IMDB gives it a whopping 2.4 stars out of 10, but the reviews reveal a serious struggle to adequately describe the movie.  Many of the reviewers appear to be conflicted about whether it's okay to laugh at the cast, especially when most agree that the cast approaches the material almost as if they were - get this - serious actors (spoiler: they were serious actors).

Next, at 2:11/3:11 am (seriously, this is programmed to play eleven minutes into the hour?), TCM has the short Three Chumps Ahead, about which I know nothing.  But I'm going to recommend it on the basis of the word "chump" appearing in the title.  Also, it's less than 20 minutes long.  I mean, what else are you recording at that time of night?  QVC?

The second feature, at 2:30/3:30 am, is The Unholy Three.  This is the talkie from 1930, not Tod Browning silent version of 1925.  Lon Chaney stars in both as the head of a group of thieves composed of sideshow performers.  This was Chaney's first and only talkie, as he passed away shortly after completing it.  Harry Earles, a little person of some note to fans of the Wizard of Oz, plays Chaney's sidekick.

Earles is also in TCM final movie, Freaks, playing at 3:45/4:45 am.  Earles plays Hans, the little person married to the conniving trapeze artist Cleopatra.  This one is, of course, the classic Tod Browning film, and it's almost impossible to do justice to it in a few sentences.  In conclusion, gabba gabba hey.