The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Short description
Set in fifteenth-century Paris, this adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel centres on Esmeralda, a Romani dancer whose beauty draws the attention of several men around Notre-Dame cathedral. Among them are Claude Frollo, a priest and alchemist, and Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer Frollo raised. Esmeralda's heart belongs to Captain Phoebus, an archer of the king's guard, and Frollo's jealousy drives him to violence against his rival. Esmeralda is accused of the crime and condemned, leaving Quasimodo to try to save her from the authorities.
Jean Delannoy directed the film, the second in the run of features listed in his filmography, after Fièvres in 1942. Jacques Prévert and Jean Aurenche wrote the screenplay, and Raymond Hakim produced. Gina Lollobrigida plays Esmeralda and Anthony Quinn plays Quasimodo, with Alain Cuny as Frollo, Jean Danet as Phoebus, and Damia and Marianne Oswald among a credited cast of twenty-eight. Production involved Italian and French companies on a budget of about one million dollars. On IMDb, the film rates 6.6 out of 10 from around 3,500 votes; on TMDB it rates 6.7 from roughly 125 votes, indicating modest but steady appreciation across the two audiences.
What's left behind the scenes
- Anthony Quinn’s (1915-2001) role was not dubbed into French, which was rare for foreign actors at the time.
- The scene of Quasimodo's coronation was filmed in two versions for different releases of the film. In the original French version, he was made "Pope of Fools," as in Victor Hugo’s novel (1831) (1802-1885). In the English version, Quasimodo was named "King of Fools" because the Hays Code in the United States prohibited mockery of clergy. (This refers to the ethical code of film production in Hollywood, adopted in 1930 by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America and becoming the unofficial de facto national standard of the United States in 1934.)
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