The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The 1923 film version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo and Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda, and directed by Wallace Worsley, is the most famous adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, aside from the 1996 Disney Adaptation. The film was Universal's "Super Jewel" of 1923 and was their most successful silent film, grossing over three-million dollars. The film is most notable for the grand sets th... more

The 1923 film version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo and Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda, and directed by Wallace Worsley, is the most famous adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, aside from the 1996 Disney Adaptation. The film was Universal's "Super Jewel" of 1923 and was their most successful silent film, grossing over three-million dollars. The film is most notable for the grand sets that recall 15th century Paris as well as Lon Chaney's performance and spectacular make-up as the tortured bell-ringer of Notre Dame. The film elevated Chaney, already a well-known character actor, to full star status in Hollywood. It also helped set a standard for many later horror films, including Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera in 1925. Today, the film is in the public domain. A script is currently being drawn up for a proposed remake funded by Dimension Films for a 2013 release. The story is set in Paris ten years before Columbus... less