The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hunchback of Notre Dame; drama / tragedy, USA, 1939; D: William Dieterle, S: Maureen O'Hara, Charles Laughton, Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell, Edmond O'Brien

Paris, 15th century. Louis XI, the King of France, is willing to accept progress in the form of the printing press, but his Chief Justice of Paris, Jean Frollo, is still a superstitious fundamentalist. The gypsies are persecuted and forbidden from entering Paris, but one of them, dancer Esmeralda, defies the orders to attend a street festival. She escapes the guards by finding sanctuary in the Notre Dame Cathedral, where Frollo falls in love with her and orders Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer, to kidnap her. Gringoire, a street poet, calls the guards who save Esmeralda and sentence Quasimodo to public whipping. The jealous Frollo stabs Phoebus, Esmeralda's love interest, and thus Esmeralda is wrongfully accused and sentenced to death by a court. However, Quaismodo saves her and they hide in the Notre Dame. Clopin, a beggar, orders a mob to storm the Notre Dame to save Esmeralda. Quasimodo kills Frollo by throwing him from the church tower, while Esmeralda is pardoned by Louis XI and falls in love with Gringoire.

The second feature length film adaptation of Victor Hugo's famous eponymous novel, William Dieterle's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is a rather faithful adaptation, and thus, congruently, a dark, bitter, dirty, naturalistic tragedy, barely "softened" by the Hays Code of that time, which contemplates about two themes: the status of outsiders in society and the damaging effects of superstitious fundamentalism which wants to prevent any kind of progress. The first theme is nicely presented in the form of two main "outcast" protagonists, gypsy Esmeralda (rejected because of her ethnic origin) and the deaf Quasimodo (rejected because of his physical looks), whereas the second one is presented through Louis XI, the King of France, who is in stark contrast with Frollo who accosts Esmeralda ("Honest people don't live by witchcraft and magic!" - "If we really had the power of magic, do you think we'd choose to be outcasts, to be poor and persecuted always?"), and the Notre Dame serves as a symbol for the high art and cultural heritage, as opposed to primitive masses happening beneath her. Full of vile details, the story is not for everyone's taste, especially in the underdeveloped character of Quasimodo who is deaf and thus almost never speaks, and in some heavy handed symbolism or questionable metaphors, yet some moments of inspirations shine through, such as in the sequence where Quasimodo is about to be publicly whipped, which causes a great dialogue between two spectators, again speaking about the irrational and the rational ("He gets what he deserves!" - "If all the noblemen would get what they deserve, we would run out of all artillery"). Charles Laughton is great in the title role, occasionally delivering more layers in it than it was initially intended.

Grade:++