Review of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) by Devon B — 08 Aug 2009

The film is naive, yes, which is what most people mean when they think of this and other films of the era as corny, dated, or artificial. But one could watch this film many times without exhausting its richness. At the same time that it is thematically complex, it is also unpretentious, clear, direct, and simple. Only toward the end does it flirt with the heavy-handed allegory that weighs down so many of Dieterle's other movies -- but this isn't enough to detract from the movie much at all.

The performances are famously very good. Laughton's coy and complex hunchback is obviously impressive. My favorite actors are of the character variety -- the implausibly progressive King of France, his bizarre bath attendant (also good as the lunatic in Twentieth Century), and the King of Thieves. As in Curtiz's Robin Hood, these actors (somehow) harmonize the maudlin pizazz of late-thirties cinema with the somber and rigid world of the middle ages. Case in point, the King, upon reading a pamphlet dittoed off in the new-fangled printing press, reflects: "This bold new way of appealing by printed petition is creating a sort of public opinion that is forcing decisions even on kings. Impertinent. But I like it. It's different." Too, too much fun.