SOURCE: Champlin, Charles. “Portrait of the Monster as a Human Being.” Los Angeles Times (28 September 1980): 34.

In the following review, Champlin argues that The Elephant Man presents a story of human compassion and avoids the subject's potential for exploitation.

“There stood revealed,” Sir Frederick Treves wrote later, “the most disgusting specimen of humanity that I have, ever seen … From the brow there projected a huge bony mass like a loaf, while from the back of the head hung a bag of spongy, fungous-looking skin. …”

Another bony mass protruded from his mouth like a half-swallowed stake, making speech almost impossible. His nose was a blob of flesh. He was misshapen, draped in evil-smelling folds of purplish skin. His right arm was gigantic and useless, ending in a finlike deformity.

The skin and the protruding brow gave him his catch-name: the Elephant Man. His real name was John Merrick; he was...