old circus movie?

Question

there was an old circus movie with weird people in it... there was a couple of people with small heads. What do you call that condition?

Answer 1

freaks
I haven't seen it, but that's what came to mind when reading your question.

Answer 2

It is indeed Freaks! (The original).. hmm.. I forgot the name, although I do recall that there were 2 different kinds in that movie.. there were two who had the same condition, and one had something slightly different.. I'll see if I can dig it up..

Schlitze is called a "pin head"
A victim of birth defect microcephaly as evidenced by smaller than normal cranium. He is also listed as the last of the Aztecs which would indicate that the birth defect stems from an ancient binding "ritual" in which they formed the heads into cones.. (maybe the binding was done in his ancestors causing a problem in the genes)

The other two (Flip and Zip) have almost no info that I've found.. other than calling them pin heads.. I remember the special features on the DVD said what their exact condition was, but I don't recall it.

hmm.. this is an interesting thing to look for.. Here is one site that tells (without strictly medical speak) what the disorder really comes down to:
http://www.nwe.ufl.edu/~zwhalen/test2.html
"The technical term for a pinhead is microcephaly, which simply means "small brain". In actual fact, microcephalics are missing their frontal lobes, so they have that sloping forehead. What they are missing really is a sense of chronology, a sense of time. Future, past, and present are all mixed up. They tend to have very large vocabularies, very active speakers. They tend to be sort of happy. I have met a few of them in my day, all of whom--pardon the phrase--freaked me out because they were so frank and open. They were kind of scary in that sense."

Answer 3

FREAKS and was directed by Tod Browning

Answer 4

shrunken head syndrome

Answer 5

Freaks - "Gooble, gobble - one of us!"