A hundred years ago (in September 1923), one of cinema's epic greats drew blockbuster crowds to theaters: producers Carl Laemmle/Irving Thalberg/Lon Chaney Sr. and director Wallace Worsley's silent-film adaptation of Victor Hugo's revered, 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Scripted by Perley Poore Sheehan and Edward T. Lowe, Jr., this Universal Studios' screen treatment captured Hugo's impassioned view of medieval France to a harsh and courageous degree.
That it holds an eclectic, if not faultless cast, only benefits its splendor: Brandon Hurst as Jehan Frollo; Norman Kerry as Captain Phoebus; Nigel De Brulier as Don Claudio; Ernest Torrence as Clopin; Raymond Hatton as Gringoire; Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda; and in one of Hollywood's most memorable portrayals, the incomparable Chaney as Quasimodo, the deformed yet valiant bell ringer of Notre Dame.
Chaney, who was raised by deaf-mute parents, had transported the moving means of outward expression to celluloid, and it textured his Quasimodo on every emotional level. Chaney was equally nimble for many of the film's outstanding stunt sequences, with his intricate makeup still standing as the closest-to-the-literary-source over any other.
The set designs, which flaunt a staggering recreation of the Notre Dame de Paris and deep, imposing interiors, are pure, visual magic, as is Robert Newhard's riveting photography, which creates the illusion of staring straight into the sordid past.
Above all, Universal's Hunchback (in sync with Hugo's novel) isn't shy about delving into the the human condition and therefore, all the good and bad that it contains. Though Quasimodo's unique appearance and moments of rage might make some quiver, in the end, it's the bell ringer's huge heart that proves true beauty lies within: a lesson that all can (and should) embrace.
(Re)watch Hunchback 1923 this Sept, if only to experience and commemorate how vast, enduring and soul-altering a melodrama can be.
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