Starring Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller and Norman Kerry
Produced by Universal Pictures
Paris during the late 1400s. The city enjoys an uneasy peace between the elite and the lower classes. The King of France sits over the upper crust while Clopin is the self-proclaimed "king of the beggars." The poor throw their festivals in the plaza outside the Cathedral of Notre Dame and the king's guards ensure things don't get out of hand.
One of the king's guards, Phoebus, becomes smitten with Clopin's adopted daughter Esmeralda. That's not unusual because most of the males in the story are taken with the girl as well. Unfortunately, this includes the evil Jehan, brother of the archdeacon. Jehan convinces Quasimodo, the deformed bellringer of the cathedral, to kidnap Esmeralda. Unfortunately for the hunchback, he is captured by Phoebus during the attempt and publicly flogged. Only Esmeralda takes pity on him, bringing him a drink of water.
Jehan and Clopin learn Phoebus and Esmeralda plan to marry and conspire to upset the union. Under the threat of a real class war, Esmeralda reluctantly agrees to forsake Phoebus' love, but plans on last rendezvous at the cathedral. During their secret meeting, Jehan stabs Phoebus and Esmeralda is blamed and arrested. Under the pain of torture, she even confesses to the crime.
As Esmeralda is being led to the gallows, she is forced to stop and repent on the steps of Notre Dame. Quasimodo sees the woman who showed him kindness and swings down to her rescue. The archdeacon provides her sanctuary within the cathedral, but Clopin plans an assault on the church to take back his daughter.
Will Phoebus and Esmeralda's love win out? And what will become of our title character?
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is not really about the hunchback of Notre Dame. It's actually everyone else's story. It's a love story between a young man and woman. It's a political struggle between an evil underclass leader and an evil psuedo-representative of the church. The title character is on the periphery, more a pawn of others than an active agent himself.
Then why is Quasimodo important? He's the x-factor. He Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. He's Sloth in The Goonies (there's even a physical resemblance). He the variable that none of the conspirators can plan for, but he finds himself at the center of everything. And you cannot predict which side he'll come down on.
Lon Chaney plays Quasimodo as though the scenery was an all-you-can-eat buffet. Of course, the make-up is great. A tuft of hair, awful teeth, one misshapen eye, that hunched back... it looks fantastic. He's jumping around like a monkey, yelling and screaming at his enemies and joyfully riding up and down on the rope that rings the bells. From scene to scene, he is either the most animal-like or most human member of the cast.
Unfortunately, the movie itself is kind of blah.
Sometimes a movie is overly complex; this one is needlessly complex. There are side characters and subplots that go nowhere. Esmeralda's birth mom (from whom the beggars abducted the girl as a child) is now a crazy old woman who wishes death upon all the gypsies, especially Esmeralda (not realizing the girl is actually her daughter). Then at the end, she realizes Esmeralda is her long lost child and... nothing. Esmeralda doesn't find out. They never meet after the woman makes the discovery. It's a plot thread that just dangles.
The sets here are lavish, but there really isn't much of a world built. None of the spaces feel at all connected and some scenes play like they are from a different movie entirely. Nothing feels terribly lived in or real. Some characters (the king, the poet) exist only to say a line or two because they needed someone to say that line. They are not really a part of the goings on; they just appear to conveniently move a plot point along and then disappear into the ether.
The few action moments in the movie are really poorly realized. You cannot make out the leads from the extras and it becomes hard to follow. Who is winning or losing? No idea.
I'm also going to assume that surviving versions of the film have suffered some unkind edits. At one point, Clopin is injured and seemingly dying on the steps of the cathedral. We never go back to it. I'm assuming he died?
After Quasimodo is wounded at the end saving Esmeralda, she looks on very concerned. That is, she looks concerned until Phoebus shows up. Then she looks relieved and leaves with him, not giving a second thought to her mortally wounded hero. Really? No resolution between the hunchback and the damsel in distress he rescued?
There's a lot of great stuff in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, principally Chaney's lead performance and the spectacular sets. However, the movie itself feels sloppy. The lead performance deserved better.
**1/2 out of *****
Photo from Film School Rejects
