Saturday Night Cinema: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

A film by Carl Laemlle…founder of Universal Pictures. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1923 American film starring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo and Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda, and is directed by Wallace Worsley. The film is the most famous adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel.

The film was Universal's "Super Jewel" of 1923 and was their most successful silent film, grossing over $3 million.

The film is most notable for the grand sets that recall 15th century Paris as well as Lon Chaney's performance and spectacular make-up as the tortured bell-ringer of Notre Dame. The film elevated Chaney, already a well-known character actor, to full star status in Hollywood. It also helped set a standard for many later horror films, including Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera in 1925. Today, the film is in the public domain.

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"The Paris public endures as one memorable character besides Chaney himself in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Its members mill like ants in the city square, shot from above by director Wallace Worseley, so as to give us the hunchback’s perspective atop the cathedral." Silent Volume

Rotten Tomatoes reviews:

Absolutely chilling, sad, awesome Chaney

Lon Chaney's Quasimodo is one of early cinema's most forlorn and tragic movie monsters, on par with King Kong and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's creation.

It opened at Carnegie Hall instead of a regular movie house, marking it as more than a movie–an event.

One of the best silent films ever made. Chaney's makeup is still incredible.

TCM:

There have been a lot of misconceptions about The Hunchback of Notre Dame over the years but one thing is certain, it made a bona fide star out of Lon Chaney. What isn't so clear is how Irving Thalberg came to be credited as the mastermind behind the project. Lon Chaney had been lobbying for a film version since 1920 but it wasn't until he shared his ideas with Thalberg that the project got greenlighted by Universal studio head Carl Laemmle. The result was a phenomenally successful film that set the standard for all future historical epics. It also confirmed Thalberg's reputation as a creative producer and helped pave the way for his illustrous career at the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios the same year. And yet, Chaney was really the driving force who originated the project.

Victor Hugo's tragic tale of the deformed bellringer and his love for Esmeralda, a doomed gypsy girl, has been filmed so many times that an accurate count of all the versions would probably be difficult to pinpoint but it's not hard to see the film's ageless appeal. While you may find movie lovers who cite the 1939 Charles Laughton version or even the 1996 Disney animated version as favorite interpretations, the general consensus among actors (Burt Lancaster and Orson Welles to name a few) is that Chaney remains the definitive Quasimodo.

The 1923 version is remarkable for other reasons as well. The set alone spanned 19 acres and the actual production required the services of 750 crew members. One of the biggest challenges was finding enough costumes to clothe the more than two thousand extras. The night sequences, which took two months to film, were also a major headache and still hold the record for the largest number of electricians ever employed on one film. No less troublesome to create was Chaney's grotesque makeup which took three hours to apply and included the innovative use of cotton and flexible collodion, adhesive tape, nose putty (for warts), and plaster for a twenty pound hump on his back. Although audiences at the time assumed Chaney did all his own stunt work in the film, he did, in fact, use a stunt double – Joe Bonomo – who was used in the scene where Quasimodo slides down a rope in front of the church and rescues Esmeralda from the King's guards.

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LizardAZ

13 years ago

Good choice Pam. I dont watch tv anymore (propaganda bs), so every weekend it’s me and popcorn and atlas shrugs. I love this movie. Thank you.
P.S. A few more western/cowboy movies would be cool.

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Paulo Mendonca

13 years ago

Lon Chaney is a master.
The (1923) Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of my favourite movies of all times.
When Hollywood was golden !
Thanks, Lady.
Paulo
Rio – Brazil

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cornell

13 years ago

Thank you, Pamela. Thanks to you, I have now seen the movie for the first time. I’ll get the book. Hugo’s Les Miserables is an academic masterpiece.

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