Lionel Barrymore and John Gilbert star in this disturbing melodrama of the unlikely love story surrounding a Budapest sideshow. Cock Robin (Gilbert) is the swaggering spieler of a Hungarian freak show known as the Palace of Illusions. The highlight of the show is a grotesque reenactment of Salome's dance of the seven veils, replete with the beheading of John the Baptist. The actress playing Salome (Renee Adoree) is the kept woman of the troupe's leading man, The Greek (Barrymore), but she's really in love with Cock Robin and despairs whenever the caddish hero betrays yet another wide-eyed maiden. Long believed to be a lost film, The Show resurfaced in the mid-1970s, proving to be a real treasure trove for aficionados of director Tod Browning.
