Glöckner Von Notre Dame Film 1939

1939 moving-picture show by William Dieterle

The Hunchback of Notre Matriarch
Theatrical poster
Directed by	William Dieterle
Screenplay by	Sonya Levien Bruno Frank (accommodation)
Based on	The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
Produced by	Pandro Southward. Berman
Starring	Charles Laughton Sir Cedric Hardwicke Thomas Mitchell Maureen O'Hara Edmond O'Brien Alan Marshal Walter Hampden
Cinematography	Joseph H. August A.Southward.C.
Edited by	William Hamilton Robert Wise
Music past	Alfred Newman (musical adaptation and original composition)
Production company	RKO Radio Pictures
Distributed past	RKO Radio Pictures
Release engagement	Dec 29, 1939 (1939-12-29) ^[1]
Running time	116 minutes
Land	United States
Language	English language
Upkeep	$i,826,000^[2]
Box office	$iii,155,000^[2]

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1939 American romantic drama moving-picture show starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara.^[3] ^[1] Directed past William Dieterle and produced past Pandro S. Berman, the pic is based on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel.

Plot [edit]

In Paris during the late Middle Ages, Louis Eleven, the Male monarch of France, and his Chief Justice of Paris, Jehan Frollo, visit a printing shop. Frollo is determined to do everything in his power to protect Paris from anything he sees as evil, including the printing printing and gypsies. That twenty-four hours is Paris' annual commemoration, the Banquet of Fools. Pierre Gringoire, a poor street poet, does a play in front end of an audition until it is interrupted by Clopin, the King of the Beggars. Esmeralda, a young gypsy girl, is seen dancing in forepart of an audience of people. Quasimodo, the hunchback and bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral, is crowned the Male monarch of Fools until Frollo catches up to him and takes him dorsum to the church.

Esmeralda is defenseless by a guard and seeks prophylactic in Notre Dame. She prays to the Virgin Mary to help her fellow gypsies only to be confronted by Frollo, who accuses her of being a infidel. Frollo then takes her upwards to the bong tower where they encounter Quasimodo. Every bit she runs away from the hunchback, Frollo commands Quasimodo to chase after her and kidnap her. Gringoire witnesses all this, and calls out to Captain Phoebus and his guards, who capture Quasimodo just in time and save Esmeralda. Quasimodo is sentenced to be lashed in the square and publicly humiliated afterwards. He asks the Parisian townspeople for h2o, which Esmeralda gives him.

After that night, Frollo shows up to a party where Esmeralda is performing and confesses his animalism for her. Afterwards, Frollo catches her and Phoebus sharing a moment in the garden. Frollo kills Phoebus out of jealousy and sentences Esmeralda to death for the crime, proverb that she has "bewitched" him. Just as she is about to be hanged, Quasimodo saves her by taking her to the cathedral and claiming the correct of sanctuary.

When Gringoire and Clopin realize that the nobles are planning to revoke Notre Dame's right of sanctuary, they both try dissimilar methods in order to salve Esmeralda from hanging: Gringoire writes a pamphlet, and Clopin leads the beggars to tempest the cathedral. At the Palace of Justice, Louis realizes that the pamphlet is creating public opinion, which can influence kings to make decisions. The Archbishop arrives to inform Louis of Notre Dame's assault and that Esmeralda is innocent, Louis demands to know who the real murderer is, to which Frollo confesses his offense to Louis and walks away, leaving Louis shocked. Louis orders Olivier to arrest Frollo and then talks to Gringoire later on reading his pamphlet. Quasimodo and the guards of Paris fight off Clopin and the beggars. Frollo attempts to kill Quasimodo with a dagger, but Quasimodo stops him and throws Frollo off the cathedral top, sending him downwards to his expiry.

Later that forenoon, Rex Louis pardons Esmeralda and the other gypsies. She leaves the public foursquare with her truthful love Gringoire and a huge auspicious crowd. Quasimodo sees all this from high on the cathedral and asks a gargoyle, "Why was I not made of stone, like thee?"

Cast [edit]

Charles Laughton every bit Quasimodo
Sir Cedric Hardwicke equally Frollo
Thomas Mitchell as Clopin
Maureen O'Hara as Esmeralda
Edmond O'Brien equally Gringoire
Alan Marshal as Phoebus
Walter Hampden as Archbishop
Harry Davenport every bit King Louis Xi
Katharine Alexander every bit Madame de Lys
George Zucco equally Procurator
Fritz Leiber as Onetime Nobleman
Etienne Girardot as Doctor
Helene Whitney as Fleur de Lys
Mina Gombell as Queen of Beggars
Arthur Hohl as Olivier
Brusque Bois every bit Student
George Tobias as Beggar
Rod La Rocque as Phillippe
Spencer Charters every bit Courtroom Clerk
Kathryn Adams as Fleur's Companion
Dianne Hunter as Fleur'southward Companion
Siegfried Arno as Tailor
Peter Godfrey as Monk (uncredited)
Rondo Hatton as Ugly Human (uncredited)
Paul Newlan every bit Whipper (uncredited)

Production [edit]

In 1932, information technology was reported past The Hollywood Reporter that Universal announced that it would remake the 1923 Hunchback of Notre Matriarch picture with John Huston writing a script and that Boris Karloff would play Quasimodo.^[4]

Irving Thalberg, who was an uncredited producer in the 1923 motion picture, considered remaking the moving picture in 1934 and even discussed the idea with Charles Laughton. Two years later, Universal regained interest in a remake, with a fan poll being instrumental in influencing the studio to make the film. Ronald Colman, Paul Muni, Fredric March, Lionel Barrymore and Peter Lorre were the choices in the poll and in the end, Universal decided to go with Lorre, even as far as negotiating with the actor to star in the film, but the project never materialized.

A year later, Carl Laemmle, Jr. persuaded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to buy the property from Universal every bit a star-vehicle for Muni. Metro refused and sold the rights to RKO, with Pandro S. Berman producing and William Dieterle directing.^[v]

For this production, RKO Radio Pictures congenital on their picture ranch a massive medieval metropolis of Paris and Notre Dame Cathedral in the San Fernando Valley.^[6] This was one of the largest and most improvident sets ever constructed.

Screenwriter Sonya Levien, who was entrusted to translate Hugo's novel into this film, made the story relevant to the events of the time the motion-picture show was made: she made the obvious parallel between Paris' persecution of the gypsies and Federal republic of germany's treatment of the Jews prior to World War Ii.^[6]

Casting [edit]

Subsequently hearing the news that RKO was going to remake the 1923 motion-picture show, Lon Chaney, Jr. sought to play the part of Quasimodo and screen-tested for the studio. While the studio felt that Chaney gave splendid performances in his numerous screen tests, other actors would be more suitable for the part, Orson Welles being 1 of the many considered. Laughton was ready to star equally Quasimodo, but RKO offered Chaney the office when it seemed like the British role player would exist unable to work in America due to troubles with the IRS. Laughton managed to overcome his problems and got the role.^[7]

Pleased with her piece of work on Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn, Laughton brought a then 18-year erstwhile Maureen O'Hara to Hollywood to play Esmeralda. This marked O'Hara's American screen debut.^[6] Co-ordinate to actress Kathryn Adams, she was supposed to play Esmeralda, but lost the role to O'Hara when Laughton cabled from Republic of ireland to Hollywood that he was "bringing Esmeralda". Adams played a companion of Fleur as compensation for losing the role.^[viii]

Dieterle wanted Claude Rains to play Frollo, but before he agreed to play the role, he had an unexpected encounter with Laughton on the Universal lot in which Laughton was very cavalier. Rains, who had mentored Laughton and John Gielgud at the Regal Academy of Dramatic Arts, later remarked that their encounter at the lot was the end of their human relationship and refused to play the part, which would be played by Cedric Hardwicke.^[9]

Filming [edit]

With a budget of $one.8 million, Hunchback proved to exist one of the near expensive movies ever fabricated past the studio. Information technology was shot at the RKO Encino Ranch, with the interiors of the bell belfry being shot at the Mudd Hall of Philosophy at the University of Southern California.

The sets of Paris and the Notre Dame Cathedral were synthetic by Van Nest Polglase at the cost of $250,000 (about $4,974,622 in 2021 dollars), while Darrell Silvera worked as set decorator. Walter Plunkett oversaw the costume pattern and Joseph H. August served as cinematographer, this film beingness the showtime of his iii collaborations with Dieterle.

Filming proved to be difficult for the cast and coiffure due to the hot temperatures, particularly for Laughton, who had to deed with a lot of makeup. In her autobiography, O'Hara recalls one twenty-four hour period arriving on the set and finding chimpanzees, baboons and gorillas. Dieterle wanted monks to be on the set but his assistant mistakenly idea he wanted monkeys because of his poor English and thick High german accent.

Makeup artist Perc Westmore was loaned past Warner Bros. to RKO for the product. Westmore and Laughton did not get along. Though Westmore wanted to use sponge rubber to make a low-cal appliance for Laughton to wear, Laughton wanted a heavy one to help him stay in graphic symbol. Laughton was offended when Westmore suggested he try interim like the hump was heavy and was rude and dismissive to Westmore throughout filming. About the end of the shoot, Westmore called his younger blood brother to the studio, where he witnessed Westmore, while strapping on the hump, spray Laughton in the confront with a seltzer bottle total of quinine water and and so kick him in the posterior. Westmore told Laughton, "That's for all the grief you gave me" and added that his blood brother was a witness and would deny anything Laughton said about the incident.^[ten]

When Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany on September 1, most of the bandage and coiffure was in a country of fear of what was going to happen. Laughton lightened the mood by reciting the Gettysburg Accost (that he had recited in Ruggles of Scarlet Gap). Another incident of emotional filming was the filming of the scene where Quasimodo rings the bells in the tower of the cathedral for Esmeralda. Feeling in pain because his native Britain had alleged war on Germany, Laughton rang the bells over and once more until he fell downwardly from exhaustion, overwhelming the crew with emotion.^[11]

Censorship [edit]

The characters of Claude Frollo and Jehan Frollo are changed from the novel, as was done in the 1923 picture. Such changes were fabricated considering the filmmakers were concerned that portraying the priest equally a villain would violate the policy of the Hays Product Code.^[12] In the novel, Claude is depicted every bit the villainous and 36-twelvemonth-old Archdeacon of Notre Dame; in the film, he is the good graphic symbol and much older in age. His younger brother, Jehan, who in the novel is a teenage and drunken student equally well as a juvenile delinquent. But in the film, he is a middle-aged villain who is too Paris' primary justice and a close advisor to Rex Louis XI.

Honor nominations [edit]

The motion picture was nominated for two Academy Awards:^[13]

Academy Award for Best Original Music Score (Alfred Newman)
University Award for Best Sound (John Aalberg)

The picture show is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - #98

Reception [edit]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 93% of critics have given the movie a positive review based on 14 reviews, with an boilerplate rating of 8.65/10.^[14] Variety called the film a "super thriller-chiller" simply found that the elaborate sets tended to overwhelm the story, particularly in the first one-half.^[3] Harrison'southward Reports wrote, "Very good! Audiences should be thrilled anew by this lavish remake of Victor Hugo's famous novel."^[one] Film Daily called it "compelling, dynamic entertainment."^[15] John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote that Laughton "achieves something like a tour de strength. The lines themselves (such modernisms as 'to buy protection'), along with a perfunctory plot arrangement, are among the weak features of the film, which otherwise is a vivid pictorial drama of fifteenth-century Paris."^[16] E. H. Harvey of The Harvard Red said that the movie "in all is more entertaining." He said that "the mediocre furnishings offering a forceful dissimilarity to the great moments" in the flick.^[17] However, Frank Due south. Nugent of The New York Times wrote a generally negative review of the moving-picture show, finding information technology "little more than" than "a freak show". Though he acknowledged information technology was "handsome enough of production and its cast is expert," he called it "almost unrelievedly brutal and without the saving grace of unreality which makes Frankenstein'south horrors a picayune comic."^[18]

The moving-picture show was very pop, earning $1,549,000 in the United States and Canada and $i,646,000 elsewhere, but because of its cost but fabricated a profit of $100,000.^[2]

Home media [edit]

The Hunchback of Notre Matriarch was released on DVD in Region 1 on September 21, 2001 by Prototype Entertainment. It was issued on Blu-ray in Region A by Warner Habitation Video on June nine, 2015.

References [edit]

^ ^a ^b ^c "The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara". Harrison'southward Reports and Film Reviews. XX1 (51): 202. December 23, 1939. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c Gem, Richard (1994). "RKO Motion-picture show Grosses: 1931-1951". Historical Periodical of Film Radio and Television set. 14 (1): 37–49. doi:10.1080/01439689400260031.
^ ^a ^b "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Variety. December 20, 1939. p. xiv. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
^ Cohen, Allen; Harry Lawton (1997). John Huston: A Guide to References and Resources. GK Hall. p. 465. ISBN978-0-8161-1619-5.
^ Senn, Bryan (September 3, 2015). Golden Horrors: An Illustrated Critical Filmography of Terror Cinema, 1931–1939. McFarland. p. 448. ISBN978-1-4766-1089-4.
^ ^a ^b ^c McGee, Scott. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)". Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved 12 March 2019.
^ Smith, Don G. (March 8, 2004). Lon Chaney, Jr.: Horror Motion picture Star, 1906-1973. McFarland. p. 119. ISBN978-i-4766-0396-four.
^ Fitzgerald, Michael M.; Boyd Magers (2002). Ladies of the Western: Interviews with 50-1 More Actresses from the Silent Era to the Boob tube Westerns of the 1950s and 1960s. University Press of Kentucky. p. ix. ISBN978-0-7864-2656-0.
^ Skall, David J.; Jessica Rains (November 7, 2008). Claude Rains: An Actor'due south Voice. Academy Press of Kentucky. p. 102. ISBN978-0-8131-2432-2.
^ Westmore, Frank (Jan 1, 1976). The Westmores of Hollywood. J.B. Lippincott. ISBN978-0-3970-1102-5.
^ O'Hara, Maureen (2004). Tis Herself: An Autobiography. Simon & Schuster. p. 40. ISBN978-0-7432-6916-2.
^ Pfeiffer, Lee (April 18, 2014). "The Hunchback of Notre Dame - film by Dieterle [1939]". Encyclopædia Britannica.
^ "The 12th Academy Awards (1940) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org . Retrieved 2011-08-12 .
^ "The Hunchback of Notre Matriarch (1939)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved Oct 27, 2019.
^ "Reviews of the New Films". Film Daily. New York: iv. December xv, 1939. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
^ Mosher, John (Dec 30, 1939). "The Current Movie theater". The New Yorker. New York. p. 51.
^ Harvey, Due east. H. (December 16, 1953). "The Hunchback of Notre Dame]". The Harvard Cherry-red . Retrieved Baronial 17, 2020.
^ Nugent, Frank S. (January 1, 1940). "Movie Review - The Hunchback of Notre Matriarch". The New York Times . Retrieved September 18, 2015.

External links [edit]

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is available for free download at the Internet Archive
The Hunchback of Notre Dame at IMDb
The Hunchback of Notre Dame at AllMovie
The Hunchback of Notre Matriarch at the TCM Movie Database
The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the American Motion picture Institute Catalog