The Elephant Man

The film begins with wild African elephants striking down Merrick's mother on an uncharted African island, followed by the wailing of a baby in the smoke. Frederick Treves, a surgeon at the London Hospital, finds John Merrick in a Victorian freak show in London's East End, where he is kept by Mr. Bytes, the brutish ringmaster. His head is kept hooded, and his "owner", who views him as intellectually disabled, is paid by Treves to bring him to the hospital for examination.