William Deterle‘s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (’39) was one of my father’s favorite films. He took my mother to see it at a Norwalk revival house on their honeymoon. No one’s idea of a romantic gesture, and yet he may have been subliminally reaching out — he may been saying to my mother “will you be my Esmeralda?”
When I was 8 or 9 I would scare the neighborhood kids by pretending to be Charles Laughton‘s Quasimodo, contorting my face and squeezing a pillow under my T-shirt and running around with that lumbering sideways gait.
Dieterle and his dp, Joseph H. August, should have shot this one in color. If future technology allows someone to colorize this classic decently, as opposed to how these clips look, I would happily re-watch it this way.
Alfred Newman‘s score is masterful.
Wiki except: With a budget of $1.8 million, Hunchback was one of the most expensive movies ever made by the studio. It was shot at the RKO Encino Ranch, where a massive replica of medieval Paris and Notre Dame Cathedral was built — one of the largest and most extravagant sets ever constructed.
“The sets were constructed 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 design.
“Filming was difficult for the cast and crew due to the hot temperatures, particularly for Laughton, who had to act with a lot of makeup.
“In her autobiography, O’Hara recalls one day arriving on the set and finding chimpanzees, baboons and gorillas. Dieterle wanted monks to be on the set but his assistant mistakenly thought he wanted monkeys because of his poor English and thick German accent.”