JohnHowardReid Wallace Worsley is not a director who usually figures in any lists of Hollywood masters. In fact, Chaney himself (with whom Worsley worked on no less than five pictures-this is the last of them) once described Worsley as little more than "good as any of the second-raters or better." Well Hunchback is certainly better. A whole lot better! A staggeringly spectacular production, its huge crowds and sets are most artistically angled and photographed. If Wallace Worsley was responsible for these consistently pleasing arrangements of light and color, he is indeed a neglected master. Ironically, it was due to the fact that he had worked successfully with Chaney at other studios that Worsley was hired in the first place, whereas Chaney's own preference was for Frank Borzage. Although Hunchback was a rousing success, Worsley was not offered any more work at Universal. In fact, the studio's publicity department regarded Worsley as such a has-been, they didn't even bother to spell his name correctly on the elaborately colorful posters prepared for the film's general release. (They managed to get Lon Chaney's name right though). In 1924, Worsley followed his Hunchback by directing a minor William Farnum/Lois Wilson vehicle, The Man Who Fights Alone, for Paramount. After that little stint, Paramount's publicity manager, B.P. Schulberg-who had Clara Bow under personal contract, plus his own personal production company(!)-releasing through Paramount of course-hired Worsley for The Shadow of the Law, a no-frills quickie that had only two claims to fame: It starred Miss Bow and was photographed by Ray June. And then came Worsley's final movie, appropriately titled The Power of Silence (1928), an out-of-date Belle Bennett silent from Tiffany-Stahl of Poverty Row. In addition to his creative visual artistry, Wallace Worsley was also adept at drawing fine performances from his players. Chaney is most effective, Miss Miller utterly charming; while Ernest Torrence, Raymond Hatton and Brandon Hurst almost steal the movie. Tully Marshall would certainly figure on this list too if his role were larger. The only weak spots are Nigel de Brulier, who is mostly quite credible but inclined to overdo the dramatics at times, and Norman Kerry who yet makes his hero considerably less abysmal here than his later effort in Phantom of the Opera. However it is not the actors, or even Mr Chaney, who constantly engage our attention. It is the overwhelming sets, filled with merry-making and murderous crowds-the whole medieval milieu in fact that Wallace Worsley brings so forcefully and dramatically to life. AVAILABLE on DVD through Image in a beautifully tinted 117-minute print, well-worn in places but always admirably sharp.

Hot 888 Mama . . . as the main villain of Victor Hugo's original novel, Capt. Phoebus, GETS THE GIRL HERE, and poor Quasimodo dies of knife wounds and falling 150 feet, NOT romantically of a broken heart in the arms of his beloved, Esmeralda, as is the case in the REAL, better plot line. But as Hollywood illustrated more recently in the Demi Moore remake of THE SCARLET LETTER, they've never been unwilling to hire "writers" with second-grade educations to "improve" master works by literary giants such as Hugo, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, Washington Irving, William Shakespeare, Margaret Mitchell, James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Dickens, and whoever else is in that famous deck of cards. Poll the American public on how many kids Scarlett O'Hara had in real life, and 99% of the answers would be "one"--since that's the number shown on-screen during the four hours of GONE WITH THE WIND, and the percentage of movie watchers too lazy to read an 1,100-page book and willing to trust Hollywood would NOT leave out anything important in a flick titled after a seminal book, such as Scarlett's OTHER kids! Now I'm not saying that I would be anymore up for a goat hanging than the next person, but it's certainly more than irritating to have director Wallace Worsley and the writing team of Perley Sheehan-Edward Lowe, Jr. turn Hugo's pathos into Disney cartoon-like bathos.

Dagon Dubbed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," Leonidas Chaney was a successful character actor in the realm of silent movies when the horror genre was but a mere fledgling. His adept talent at pantomime was a perfect fit for portraying poor or unfortunate souls; this level of dedication elevated him into the elite ranks of Hollywood and a valuable asset to Universal Studios. Aside from playing the role of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Chaney developed his own makeup techniques to transform himself into Erik the Phantom in 1925's The Phantom of the Opera. Chaney should be noted for other highly celebrated titles as well, but Hunchback and Phantom are his most widely recognized with the former being featured as Universal's top selling film of 1923, grossing over $3 million. The tale takes place in 15th Century France in which a deformed bell- ringer named Quasimodo is tasked with ringing the bell of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Esmerelda, a young gypsy girl, is the adopted daughter of Clopin; a hero and "king" to an underground resistance group of beggars and peasants that tire of the rule and oppression of the aristocracy. Captain Phoebus, a womanizing commander in the King's army, rescues Esmerelda and forms an obsessive interest in her. With the dawn of the resistance approaching, and a love and attraction shared for Esmerelda between Quasimodo and Phoebus reaching an end, a disaster awaits on the horizon. This film was such a major achievement for Universal - just the set construction alone is awesome. You're left with the sense that each set is so vast...and here I thought some of the sets in Frankenstein and Dracula were huge! It's great to see even earlier films had this quality about them. It's unquestionable, even for naysayers, to admit that Universal was a driving force in cinema at the time...without their innovations and extensive talent pool, who knows how the film industry would have ended up. The Hunchback of Notre Dame also sports a tremendous musical score; a brilliant assembly of musicians and overall classic appeal to add to the film's ambiance. You may be surprised to learn that, while I did find some very impressive and wonderful things to discuss about this film, I did not rate it highly. This book-to-film adaptation barely classifies as horror, even by older standards. I am unfamiliar with the novel it is based from...a possibility exists that I could be wrong in saying this. In my opinion the pace of the film was slow and like I stated earlier, rather lengthy for a silent film...but whether this was silent or not, it holds no relevance to the drawn out aspects of the plot. It goes without saying that people prefer a film that's evenly paced and not one that is dragged through the muck and devoid of stimulation. I'm a horror enthusiast, and in my humble opinion, a person with an average amount of tolerance and a basic understanding of the genre would be completely uninterested in this version. While the sets are amazing and Chaney's tortured performance of a deformed man is intriguing it won't be enough to suck most audiences in nowadays...especially those looking for sheer horror.If you're hungry for knowledge and you would like to know how the earlier days of horror started out, then a film like this is perfect - it may not score highly on your list but it's important to recognize the groundwork laid by both Lon Chaney, Sr. and Universal in the early days.

lepoisson-1 This movie is an awesome production from start to finish. When there's a mob scene, it's a full tilt mob. The "Court of Miracles" is really populated by hundreds of Paris' "down and outs." Watching the hunchback navigate the façade of Notre Dame is breathtaking. Universal spared nothing making this picture, and it shows. And of course, Lon Chaney as the hunchback was both believable and repulsive.I cannot add much that hasn't already been said. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough, from viewpoints of both historical importance and pure entertainment. Finally, I recommend checking out Charles Laughton as the hunchback in the 1939 version; it too is a superb interpretation of Hugo's novel.