The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)

Directed by Wallace Worsley. With Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry, Kate Lester. 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.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1923 American romantic drama film with horror elements starring Lon Chaney, directed by Wallace Worsley, and produced by Carl Laemmle and Irving Thalberg. The supporting cast includes Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry, Nigel de Brulier, and Brandon

This second film version of the Victor Hugo novel Notre Dame de Paris (the first was a Theda Bara vehicle, The Dancer of Paris) was a super-duper-spectacular as only Hollywood of the 1920s could make them, but it is never so large that it dwarfs the contribution of its star, Lon Chaney. As the hunchbacked bellringer Quasimodo, Chaney adorned himself with a special device that made his cheeks jut out grotesquely; a contact lens that blanked out one of his eyes; and, most painfully, a huge rubber hump covered with coarse animal fur and weighing anywhere from 30 to 50 pounds. While Quasimodo is but one of many interconnecting characters in the original Hugo novel, he dominates the narrative of this expensive Universal production. Set in the walled city of Paris in the 16th century, the story is set in motion when the evil Jehan (Brandon Hurst), brother of saintly Notre Dame archdeacon Dom Claude (Nigel De Brulier), orders the dog-like Quasimodo to attempt to kidnap gypsy girl Esmeralda (Patsy Ruth Miller). Quasimodo is captured and flogged for his crime, whereupon Esmeralda shows him kindness by offering him water. He reciprocates when Esmeralda, framed on a murder charge by the obsessed Jehan (if he can't have her, no one can), is sentenced to be hanged. Quasimodo grabs a rope and swings down from the towers of Notre Dame, rescues Esmeralda from the gallows, and carries her into the church, shouting

In medieval France, a deformed bell-ringer gives sanctuary to a beautiful gypsy accused of witchcraft.

Silent film version of Victor Hugo's novel about a hunchbacked bellringer who is flogged for trying to kidnap a gypsy girl at the order of an archdeacon's ev...

The “cult of grandiosity” was a term coined by the art historian Arnold Hauser to describe the prose style of Victor Hugo and the taste of his Second Empire readership. It might also be applied to “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” Universal’s 1923 version of Hugo’s “Notre-Dame de Pa

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1923 film about a deformed bell-ringer who gives sanctuary to a beautiful gypsy.

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been prepared by home video producers David Shepard and Serge Bromberg with a new high-definition video transfer from a color-tinted 16mm reduction print that was duplicated from the camera negative in 1926.

I admit to a certain affection for silent films. I also admit to the difficulty of selling the idea of a film with no spoken dialog or sound effects in this modern age. Luckily for me, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, perhaps Lon Chaney’s most famous outing, just about sells itself.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1923 American film directed by Wallace Worsley and produced by Carl Laemmle and Irving Thalberg. It stars Lon Chaney, Sr., Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry, Nigel de Brulier, Brandon Hurst. The film is probably the second most famous adaptation of