The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hunchback of Notre Dame isn't in Technicolor, but with Charles Laughton carrying the title role as a hideously deformed bell-ringer, this picture doesn't even need a sound-track.

Of course, there are other actors in this ten-year-old adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel--Thomas Mitchell is excellent as the Beggar King of backstreet Paris, even Maureen O'Hara is adequate as a gypsy dancer who violates some sort of 16th century McCarran Act and gets the Dungeon in return. For my money, though, it's Laughton all the way. His sardonic leer and characteristic aplomb steal the show whether he is abducting a woman, riding gleefully on the swinging church bells, or swooping down from the sky to save Miss O'Hara from the hangman's noose. Toward the picture's end, as a mob of Parisian beggars storm Notre Dame's doors, Laughton climbs to the roof and hurls huge building blocks down on the crowd as he howls with maniacal laughter. For a finale, he overturns a cauldron of molten metal into the gutters leading to the cathedral's gargoyle rain-spouts. It blows onto the mob while Laughton executes his fiendish victory dance around the cauldron. For Charles Adams fans, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a must-see--for anyone else it is still a classic film.