Hollywood director Tod Browning's photo archive to star at Bonhams

Hollywood director Tod Browning's personal photo archive will be among the highlights of Bonhams' annual movie memorabilia auction in collaboration with TCM.

It's valued at $80,000-120,000 ahead of the November 30 sale.

Tod Browning archive
Tod Browning directed some of the most intriguing horrors of Hollywood's golden age

Browning (1880-1962) was the legendary auteur behind movies such as Dracula (1931), London after Midnight (1927) and Freaks (1932).

The lot consists of around 1,700 photographs taken over the course of Browning's career, many of them on the sets of films that have long since been lost.

The auction house comments: "An archive of this scope from a Golden Age Hollywood horror filmmaker of Browning's stature is virtually unheard-of.

"It is extraordinary in many ways, beginning with its sheer size…

"Also exceptional is the photographs' overall condition: many show very little wear and appear to have barely been handled in decades."

Of particular interest are the images that show the famously gruesome scenes cut from Freaks for being too graphic.

There's also a shot of the film's stars eating at a table away from the rest of the cast (they were ostracised for their appearances despite their headline roles).

A harp that Harpo Marx, of comedy troupe the Marx Brothers, used in various TV appearances during the 1950s is valued at $20,000-30,000.

It memorably appears in a 1955 episode of classic US sitcom I Love Lucy.

You can take a look at our amazing selection of movie memorabilia here.

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