Discover
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William Wyler
Assistant Director -
Victor Hugo
Novel -
Edward T. Lowe Jr.
Scenario Writer -
Charles D. Hall
Assistant Art Director -
Lon Chaney
Makeup Artist -
Hans Dreier
Set Decoration -
Cliff Shirpser
Assistant Camera -
Harvey Parry
Visual Effects
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CinemaSerf 6/6/2022 5:01:35 PM
I reckon that this has to be the saddest of all love stories ever written - in any language! Although top billing goes to the pathetically grotesque Lon Chaney as the bell-ringer "Quasimodo", I think the plaudits must go to Patsy Ruth Miller as the persecuted gypsy "Esmerelda" in this 1923 adaptation of Victor Hugo's story. The score is hauntingly effective as both battle prejudice, jealousy and enmity from high and low society; with plots for revolution against the rather despotic rule of Louis XI never far from the theme. Chaney's make up is not great, even by the standards of the day, and it would not look out of place in a "Tarzan" film, but that matters little to the wonderfully evocative efforts from director Wallace Worsley to enshrine this classical story of lust, power and sadness to film, with a narrative that emphasises more of the emotional aspects of the story than many of it's successors. Particularly effective is the use of light and staging (partly Parisian, partly Californian) too. 2¼ hours may look long, but this positively flies by - rarely, if ever, making you want it to hurry up. Great stuff.
Raymond Hatton
GringoireGilbert Roland
Extra (uncredited)Nigel De Brulier
Don ClaudioJohn George
(uncredited)Tully Marshall
El Rey Luis XIPaul Hurst
Emeralda's Torturer (uncredited)Lon Chaney
QuasimodoHarry Holman
Fat Man (uncredited)