The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Maureen O'Hara and Charles Laughton re-teamed in the 1939 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, based on the classic novel by Victor Hugo about the deformed bell ringer of Paris. Set in the late 15th century, the film, like the novel, is a searing indictment of the mistreatment of the poor and unfortunate, and has some scenes that rouse the spirit as no others do.

The subject matter had been made into many films before, including the famous silent one starring Lon Chaney. But a film about bells should be in sound, and this one, directed by William Dieterle, gets just about every note right.

The film opens with some gypsies trying to get into Paris. The cruel minister of justice (Cedric Hardwicke) has banned their entrance, but Esmerelda (O'Hara) sneaks in. It is the Festival of Fools, and Quasimodo, the title character, has ventured out of the cathedral. He ends up being crowned king of fools.

Later, Hardwicke will find himself tempted by O'Hara, and has Quasimodo, whom he rescued as an infant, make off with her. The poor hunchback is caught, though, and has to endure a flogging.While he is left on the pillory O'Hara takes pity on him and gives him water. O'Hara is later rescued by a convocation of beggars, led by Thomas Mitchell. She ends up meeting a rabble-rousing poet (Edmond O'Brien), who falls in love with her.

She has eyes for a dashing captain of the guard, and when they head into the woods for some nookie Hardwicke follows them and kills the captain, but O'Hara is blamed. Hardwicke ends up presiding over her trial, and thinks that Satan has sent her to tempt him, so she must die. But Quasimodo swinging down out of the belltower, rescues her from the scaffold and declares sanctuary.

The climax involves hundreds of extras in an attack on Notre Dame, with Quasimodo throwing down bricks and then pouring hot lead on the marauders. Unlike the book, though, where Quasimodo and Esmerelda both die, we get a happy ending here, with Quasimodo pitching Hardwicke off the tower like a sack of grain.

I loved this film from beginning to end. It's a very political film, as Mitchell and O'Brien's characters give voice to reformer's ideas. As Mitchell says, the beggars steal very little, not on the order of the nobles. He also has a great line about Hardwicke--"Never trust a man with pinched nostrils and thin lips. The contrast between Hardwicke and the character of his brother, the archbishop, is told in brilliant broad strokes. And Harry Davenport, as the forward-thinking King Louis XI, is a delight. He favors the future, with printing presses and dissent.

But of course the movie belongs to Laughton, who is so expressive in so little words. You can only see one of his eyes, but that one is so expressive. In some ways he prefigures The Elephant Man, though he says of himself, "I am not a man. I am not a beast." At another point he says to Esmerelda, "I never before knew how ugly I was. Not until I saw how beautiful you are." The last line of the film really delivers a punch, as he sits next to a gargoyle and says, "Why was I not made of stone like thee?"