The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923/I)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Wallace Worsley

Writers:

Victor Hugo (novel)
Perley Poore Sheehan (adaptation)

Release Date:

6 September 1923 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Plot:

In fifteenth century Paris, the brother of the archdeacon plots with the gypsy king to foment a peasant revolt. Meanwhile, a freakish hunchback falls in love with the gypsy queen.

Plot Keywords:

Gypsy | Hunchback | King | Gypsy King | Soldier

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Lon Chaney	...	Quasimodo
Patsy Ruth Miller	...	Esmeralda
Norman Kerry	...	Phoebus de Chateaupers
Kate Lester	...	Madame de Condelaurier
Winifred Bryson	...	Fleur de Lys
Nigel De Brulier	...	Don Claudio (as Nigel de Brulier)
Brandon Hurst	...	Jehan
Ernest Torrence	...	Clopin
Tully Marshall	...	El Rey Luis XI
Harry von Meter	...	Mons. Neufchatel (as Harry Van Meter)
Raymond Hatton	...	Gringoire
Nick De Ruiz	...	Mons. Le Torteru (as Nick de Ruiz)
Eulalie Jensen	...	Marie
Roy Laidlaw	...	Charmolu
Ray Myers	...	Charmolu's Assistant (as W. Ray Meyers)

Also Known As:

Der Bucklige von Notre Dame (Austria) [de]
Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (Germany) [de]
Dzwonnik z Notre Dame (Poland) [pl]
El jorobado de Notre Dame (Spain) [es]
El jorobado de nuestra señora de París (Spain) [es]
I Panagia ton Parision (Greece) (TV title) [el]
Il gobbo di Notre Dame (Italy) [it]
Nossa Senhora de Paris (Portugal) [pt]
Notre Damen kellonsoittaja (Finland) [fi]
Notre-Dame de Paris (France) [fr]
O Corcunda de Notre Dame (Brazil) [pt]
Ringaren i Notre Dame (Sweden) [sv]

Runtime:

Canada:95 min (Ontario) | USA:98 min (TCM Print) | USA:117 min (2006 alternate version) | 133 min (24 fps)

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White | Color (tinted)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:Unrated | Canada:G (Ontario) | Spain:T | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

European Village set, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Wallace Worsley Jr., son of the film's director, said that many of the extras for the massive crowd scenes were recruited in downtown Los Angeles for $1.00 a night and meals. Among them, he said, were a good number of prostitutes, who did a "considerable sideline business" on the sets. Universal also hired 50 Pinkerton detectives and put them among the crowd, and their job was to catch pickpockets and various other thieves among the extras.

Goofs:

Continuity: The hair on the back of the Hunchback's hands appears early in the film and later disappears.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Muppet Babies: The House That Muppets Built (#4.16)" (1988)

Medieval Menace

Deaf and half-blind, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, feared & rejected by the people of Paris, becomes the unlikely protector of a poor gypsy girl.

Lon Chaney, master of disguise, solidified his celebrity with his portrayal of Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer, who is forever cut off from any semblance of a normal life. Although his makeup is certainly horrific, Chaney's role is not really monstrous: he is a lonely human desperately misused by Fate. Chaney's face speaks for him, communicating the tormenting anguish of his soul. While not quite as poignant as Charles Laughton's interpretation 16 years later, Chaney still makes of the role a Silent hallmark which has stood the test of time.

There are fairly lengthy segments in which Chaney does not appear and plot elements not explored in the longer Laughton version. Here the story dwells on the gypsy dancer Esmeralda, played by Patsy Ruth Miller, and her burgeoning romance with the brave Phoebus, Captain of the Guard, played by Norman Kerry. Both performers do very well with their 'normal' roles -- her innocence contrasting well with his initial lust -- even though the viewer is doubtless anxious for the return of the Hunchback.

A handful of excellent character actors from the era add their assistance: gaunt Nigel de Brulier as the saintly Archdeacon, defender of the Hunchback; beefy Ernest Torrence as Clopin, King of Thieves, ruling over the Court of Miracles; prissy Raymond Hatton as the effete poet Gringoire; and feeble Tully Marshall as a suspicious Louis XI.

Special mention must be made of Universal's splendid attention to detail which they lavished on the film. Most especially commendable is the representation of Notre Dame's West Facade, the only real angle from which the Cathedral's exterior is depicted. To see Chaney clamber down, swinging from pinnacle to gargoyle to statue; or, to watch Quasimodo defend Esmeralda from the crowd of beggars he thinks has come to kill her, dropping stones, beams and molten metal on their heads below from the Cathedral's ramparts, is to enjoy two of Silent Cinema's great visual moments.