CMBA Movies of 1939 Blogathon: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

(...)

Lost in a crowd of greats.

Not a single Oscar. 

That's showbiz"

Maureen O'Hara, 'Tis Herself.

If there's a period in Human History I would NOT have liked to be born in, that would be Medieval Europe. Think about it: invasions, lack of education for common people, diseases, abuses, wars, dirtiness...and even when it's fiction, if there's a character I would not like to be, that's Esmeralda, the gypsy. I mean you have to add to the whole terrible scenario, the fact of being persecuted because of your race, the fact that a creepy archdeacon wants to kill/torture you because he desires you, oh, that in a creepy night, after being chased by an ugly-looking hunchback, you get married with a stranger because a gang of thieves wanted to kill him.

I never liked this novel by Victor Hugo because it give me the creeps. I didn't even see the Disney version. I found the whole thing disgusting.

Then one day I saw the 1939 version (William Dieterle) with my mom on TCM. Yes, all the creepy and disgusting elements were there. And under Dieterle's direction, they were even maximized. An aggresive and vulgar multitude gathers to see people being punished or executed. They're shown laughing at others' disgraces. They become one character, an obscure, noisy character under dark lighting, in a setting that makes you feel the dirtiness of the city, mud, puddles; Paris never looked less charming.

But Charles Laughton was also there.

And he was giving his poor character a soul, some kind of dignity amid such disgrace and terrible times. The hunchback says that he's not human, not a beast. And Charles plays him like a bit of both. Sometimes he behaves like a happy child playing with a new toy, the next like a cornered animal. With his one real eye visible, Charles stares Esmeralda like a sad puppy looking for affection and then like a young man --the character was 24 years old-- hopelessly in love.

Charles is one of the reason why this film is so memorable. What a terrific performer he was. He acted putting together the main powerful core of his characters and rich details, everything in a perfect combination, the kind of combination that makes you think that that's it, there's not other way to play it.

And when you add to his performance the great work from Perc Westmore, at the time the number one makeup man in the picture business, well it just can't get any better.

Maureen O'Hara remembers in her entertaining autobiography (review), how Charles became the hunchback:

When I saw Laughton for the first time as Quasimodo, I almost fell over. I took one look at him and gasped,  "Good God, Charles. Is that really you?" He answered me with a wink and then limped off. The transformation was unbelievable, and was accomplished without any of the advance technology used today (...)

Laughton wanted the hunchback's face to look lopsided, and so the mask had to pull the right side of his face up and the left down. A false eye was placed on the left cheek and Laughton wore colored contact lens in his right eye to give it a cloudy look. The hump itself weighed four pounds and consisted of an aluminium scaffold filled with foam rubber and then covered with a thin layer of elastic. Laughton wanted it heavy so he cold feel the physical pain of walking with it. He also had an inch added to the stole of his left shoe so that one leg would be shorter than the other, creating a natural limp.

When I entered this blogathon, I thought hell yeah, what a great year was 1939...for films. Because that year was a terrible time for humanity. While they were filming, the World War II began. Maureen remembers two related memorable moments: the first, when Hitler invaded Poland.The cast and crew arrived fearful to the set. Everyone started trying to comfort each other. Charles, dressed as Quasimodo, was sitting on his chair, absent minded and silent. But then he stood and started recitig the Gettysburg Address. Like a prayer. Everyone listened to him, moved. Maureen says it was the greatest single piece of acting she has ever seen.

The second occurred when England and France declared war on Germany. They had to shoot the scene when Quasimodo rings the bells for Esmeralda:

It was supposed to be an expression of the hunchback's love for her. But Laughton was so overcome with pain that the emotion of the scene swept him away. He began ringing the bells and then it grew into something that trascended the film. He rang them with a ferocity that I had never seen in him before. The sound was almost deafening. Everybody, including Dieterly, was so overcome we all forgot we were shooting a scene. Dieterle forgot to call  "Cut'' when the scene ended, and Laughton kept ringing the bells until he collapsed from exhaustion.

Afterward. I went to see him in his tent. "Charles, are you all right?" I asked. "It just took me over, Maureen" he replied. "I couldn't even think of Esmeralda up there at all. I could only think of the poor people out there going to fight that bloody, bloody war. To arouse the world, to stop that terrible blutchery! Awake! Awake! That's all I could feel!

In many ways, the war helped Laughton's performance. It became his nexus. It was the voice which he could express the world's pain and suffering "

And Maureen O'Hara --Charles' protégée (he even wanted to adopt her)-- as Esmeralda brings a special light to the film. Dieterle's cameras captured forever this fresh new face, an eigtheen year old Irish girl making her first film in the States. I especially like the scenes in which she talks to Virgin Mary, when she gives water to Quasimodo and when she claims her innocence before the guilty monk. And after re-watching this I thought how great is that Maureen is still with us.

There are some parts in the story that I don't get though. At the end Quasimodo wants to save Esmeralda, the thieves want to save Esmeralda, her husband wants to save her, the Church wants to save her, the King wants to save her...but somehow they all end up confronting each other, instead of uniting against the noble men that want to execute her. As The Captain & Cool Hand Luke would say, what we have here is a failure to communicate :)

But there are more things to like about this film, like Harry Davenport as the The King, who was kind but still mixed goverment, religion and justice. Or Cedric Hardwicke as Frollo, the bad archdeacon (aka the guy with terrible hair cut), who makes his character detestable by working with his eyes when he is near Esmeralda, making you know all about his obscure thoughts. Just check the still. We could name it "My eyes are up here".

I'd like to end this post with a point that talks about human nature. When the people is jollilly watching the Hunchback being crowned king of fools, The King says: 

One shrinks from the ugly, yet wants to look at it. There's a devilish fascination in it. We extract pleasure from horror. 

And I think that's part of us. What makes show business and TV channels and newspapers covering stories of 'celebrities' and people that voluntarily expose themselves so succesful. What makes news channels give the most shocking news first. Maybe we're still a crowd laughing at a human being, finding some kind of wicked entertainment in others' misfortunes and lack of judgement.

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• This entry is part of the CMBA Movies of 1939 Blogathon, hosted by Page and Becky. Check wonderful reviews of the other many great movies released that year, here.
• This film is available on Amazon ($5.49)
  
• You can check my review of Maureen O'Hara's autobiography here. I've also reviewed a bunch of her films including the great This Land is Mine also with Charles Laughton;  The Parent Trap, The Black Swan & Only the lonely. I also included her in my list of performers that should have won an Oscar.
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