The only person to have definitively written about Schlitzy's filmography is artist
Ari Roussimoff.
In his film "Freaks Uncensored: A Human Sideshow" (Bohemia Productions, 1998) Mr. Roussimoff mentions that Schlitzie was in fourteen motion pictures.
At his WEBSITE he goes into more detail on some of these films:
"As to films, Schlitze was not, as is commonly claimed, a discovery of director Tod Browning’s. Schlitze was first brought to Browning’s attention by a famed sideshow “Armless Wonder” named Paul (Professor) Desmuke (sometimes called Dismute), who had worked for Browning previously as the "stand-in" legs for Lon Chaney Sr. who played an armless circus wonder in “The Unknown”. Desmuke, who refused to appear in “Freaks”, nonetheless suggested Browning use the affable Schlitze, whom the Armless Wonder hat met on the set of the old 1928 silent murder mystery film, “The Sideshow” (Schlitze’s actual film debut). “The Sideshow” was directed by Erle C. Kenton, who in later years had again chosen to include Schlitze in his “Island of Lost Souls” which starred Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi. A rather furry Schlitze appears for just over a few seconds, wildly charging at the camera while yelling out as one of the “manimals” in the revolt sequence. Still hairy from “Island of Lost Souls”, Schlitze was stuck into a cheap exploitation movie called “Tomorrow’s Children”. Because in that movie, he only was slated to do just one court scene, they eventually shaved his head again to put him back on the bally. When producer Bryan Foy wanted Schlitze back for an additional scene in the Los Angeles County Hospital, they disguised his then bald pate by covering it with a towel. He eventually appeared in a number of other movies as well as in a few of those old short subject musical “soundies” where carnival settings were required. You see him clearly on the bally behind the singers in the longer version of “Sawdust Memories”, and as a bird girl in “Meet Boston Blackie”. |
