Director: William Dieterle
Writers: Sonya Levien, Bruno Frank
Stars: Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Hara, Cedric Hardwicke
Run Time: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Synopsis
The king, Louis XI, is in town to examine a printing press that makes Bibles. He confides to Frollo how innovative that is. Frollo thinks the press could bring down a kingdom. The king gives a speech about the new ways of the printing press and the old ways of the church. He calls the cathedrals “The handwriting of the past.”
The gypsies are turned away at the gate, but Esmerelda sneaks through. There’s a big festival to celebrate the king. There’s dancing and drinking, and everyone has a wild time. The beggars and thieves are working overtime. The King states that “we derive pleasure from horror,” when they have an “ugliest man” contest. Meanwhile, Esmerelda dances and Gringoire the actor immediately falls in love. Esmerelda catches Quasimodo watching her from under the stage. They stick his head in the ugly man contest, and they make him the King of Fools. We are told that he’s completely deaf from ringing the bells.
Frollo is no fun at all, and he stops the celebration and runs everyone off. Esmerelda is recognized by one of the guards as a gypsy, and she runs into the big church to ask for sanctuary. Frollo drags Quasimodo back to the church and tells the priest to watch over the hunchback more closely; it turns out Frollo is Quasimodo’s protector since he was a foundling. Esmerelda looks at Frollo’s hand and sees “The mark of evil.”
The king overhears Esmerelda and promises to think about helping the gypsies. Frollo tells Esmerelda that Quasimodo will look over her, but she’s terrified of the hunchback. She runs away, and he runs after her and catches her in town, then carries her back toward the cathedral, with half the town in pursuit. Phoebus, the captain of the guard, rescues her from the hunchback and takes him into custody.
Gringoire sneaks into the beggar’s quarter and has to beg before Clopin, the king of the beggars. They force him to marry Esmerelda, although she’d prefer Captain Phoebus.
Meanwhile, Quasimodo is accused of several crimes, but he has no idea what is going on because he’s deaf. He is judged harshly because he can’t hear to defend himself in court. The tie him up in the center of town on a pillory, strip off his shirt, and he gets fifty lashes. Then people throw trash at him for a full hour. He brightens up when Frollo rides in, thinking he will help, then looks defeated when Frollo keeps riding past. He cries for water, and only Esmerelda will bring him any.
When he’s finally released, he goes a little crazy with the bells. That night, Esmerelda dances with Gringoire in a show, and Phoebus notices her. Frollo also notices her, and he declares his love for her.
Captain Phoebus is killed, and the crowd finds Esmerelda standing over the body. Frollo admits to the Archdeacon that he did the murder. The Archdeacon disowns him. There’s a trial, and Quasimodo claims to have done the murder to protect Esmerelda. She’s found guilty of being a witch and a murderer and sentenced to hang.
She mounts the scaffold, and they put the noose around her neck. He swings in on a rope, grabs her, and swings back to the church, screaming “Sanctuary! Sanctuary!”
Esmerelda and Quasimodo have a long discussion about why he saved her, and he finally gets to speak. Not long after, Frollo, the Archdeacon, and the King have a conversation where Frollo admits committing the murder.
Meanwhile, Clopin and the beggars are outside the church demanding Esmerelda’s release. The craftsmen say they are here to help. Before long, there are thousands of people out there. Quasimodo thinks they have come to hang Esmerelda, when actually, they all want her freedom. He does what he can to discourage them from attacking the church, but there are just too many of them.
Quasimodo lights up the fire under the molten lead and pours it on the crowd, which actually does disperse most of them. Then the army arrive. He goes inside to find Frollo chasing Esmerelda around the tower. He catches up to Frollo and throws him from the roof of the church.
The alarm goes off; Esmerelda has been pardoned by the king. The Archdeacon says she should thank Quasimodo, who saved her. She goes off with Gringoire, and Quasimodo is sad as he talks to a gargoyle.
Commentary
There’s little here that we haven’t seen before, story-wise until the very end. The ending here is a little different from the previous film and the original book, in that Quasimodo and Esmerelda both live, which isn’t really supposed to happen. Quasimodo killed a bunch of townspeople but no one seems to care about arresting him.
Laughton’s makeup is awesome; it looks far more realistic than Lon Chaney’s did many years before. The cast is huge with hundreds of people at the big opening festival.
Frollo is racist, sexist, elitist, and one-hundred percent uptight and humorless throughout. I can’t think of a less happy villain portrayal in film elsewhere. Cedric Hardwicke really outdid himself in this part, playing probably the most unhappy, miserable villain ever.
We watched the Apple TV version, and it obviously has been restored to HD if not better. It was well-lit, sharp, and the sound was as good as any modern film. It’s pretty slow paced, especially if you already very familiar with the story, and the strange “happy ending” was a little off-putting.