If Hunchback of Notre Dame didn't have Lon Chaney, it would have little to recommend it to most contemporary viewers.

The silent movie's title cards frequently fail to share with the audience bits of dialogue that seem as though they might be important. This makes for a distracting guessing game as we try to figure things from context, or at least assure ourselves that maybe we haven't missed anything after all. It is a particular challenge for anyone who remembers Victor Hugo's novel. The movie retains the outline of Hugo's story of a misshapen man who tries to repay the kindness of the only person who ever showed him any, Esmeralda, a woman as beautiful as he is ugly. But screenwriter Edward T. Lowe Jr. has taken several liberties in adapting the book for the screen, including making the romantic interest less villainous.

And except for some masterful moments in Chaney's performance, most of the acting is of the exaggerated, goofy variety that makes silent movies such easy targets for jokes. Patsy Ruth Miller, for instance, is quite pretty but she plays Esmeralda with none of the subtle expressive power that Lillian Gish and Louise Brooks radiated to make themselves legends. Most of the time she holds her hands near her eyes and opens her mouth into an "O" like that of the old Saturday Night Live's Mr. Bill. And she uses this expression to suggest everything from mild surprise to horror, making her one expression serve many purposes the way that Keanu Reeves does with his "Whoa."

Also, Phoebus, the romantic lead is played by Norman Kerry with an unconvincing, overstated earnestness that is amusing when it comes from the cartoon character Dudley DoRight but is disconcerting coming from this guy. And the character's long, wavy hair makes Kerry as Phoebus look like "Weird" Al Yankovic trying to be a Byronic hero, or Tiny Tim playing Errol Flynn.

But The Hunchback of Notre Dame does have Lon Chaney, and so it has quite a bit to recommend it to modern audiences.

Chaney was hailed as "The Man of a Thousand Faces" because of his skill in using makeup to transform himself into such characters as the scarred Phantom of the Opera and the hunchback Quasimodo. He uses his cosmetic prowess to good effect in this first film version of Hugo's novel. (Charles Laughton plays Quasimodo in a 1939 talking version that solleks recommends: http://www.epinions.com/content_31429201540 .)

There is his character's hunched back, of course, but there is much more. Chaney has entombed one of Quasimodo's eyes behind flesh that bulges up from his face, and has sunk the other eye unnervingly. His cheeks are sunken also, beneath grotesquely extended cheekbones. Quasimodo's mouth is twisted, his teeth are rotted and his nose would make Cyrano feel comparatively blessed.

Under all that artfully crafted latex, Chaney's expressions convey intensely the pain of a human being whose inhuman features have made him a target for the scorn and brutal hatreds of those whom Nature has formed less imperfectly. Chaney uses his expressive power to radiate those agonies most effectively in an early scene in which he is the target of an angry mob. Esmeralda favors him with a small, gentle gesture. He greets her kindness with flashes of confusion and then gratitude and wonder that replace the anguish that had clouded his dark features.

Chaney's portrayal affects anyone who has at least a bit of empathy. Even if you skated through elementary and high schools and never felt what jkkelley
( http://www.epinions.com/content_22251540100 ) calls "the Procrustean bed of teen peer pressure," and even if you've made it through adulthood without having a spiteful neighbor or being the subject of malicious office gossip, Chaney instills a sensation of what it might be like to be a mob's target.

More focus on the nuances of Chaney's acting would have made the movie more powerful. Such emphasis is especially lacking in the conclusion, when Quasimodo has taken Esmeralda into the sanctuary of the cathedral to protect her from a false charge of murder. The citizens who have tormented the hunchback storm Notre Dame to try to save Esmeralda from the man they can see only as a monster. From the heights of the church's tower, Quasimodo drops boulders and beams on them and then splashes them with molten lead.

Patsy Ruth Miller's Esmeralda tries to stop Quasimodo from hurting the people below them. But her efforts define "ineffectual" and she is reduced to quivering in the background with her hands framing the "O" into which her mouth is frozen. To make this scene effective, we need to see Quasimodo's anger at those who have hurt him and we need to see his hostility war with his affection for Esmeralda. Chaney's earlier performance proves he could suggest such conflict, but director Wallace Worsley doesn't give him the chance. Instead of close-ups on Quasimodo, Worsely gives us long shots that emphasize the hunchback's running about and jumping up and down. That Chaney could pull off such acrobatics under the weight of all his prosthetics is impressive, but not nearly as impressive as the ability he displayed earlier to act under all those layers of cosmetics and putty.

To make the movie more moving, remember at the end what Chaney's performance was at the beginning. That won't be difficult. Chaney has seen to it that you will.


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This is an entry in Psychovant's "Halloween Write-Off." My respect for her and my appreciation for her many excellent critiques, especially her enthusiastic recommendation of a superior silent movie, The Passion of Joan of Arc
( http://www.epinions.com/content_15808499332 ), is enough to outweigh my distaste for how Epinions has treated its writers lately. (My final thoughts on that whole dreary episode are near the top of my profile page.)

Psychovant has posted on her profile page
( http://www.epinions.com/user-psychovant ) links to
others who contributed to the write-off, including:

ChainsawBoy; ChrisJarmick; DavidK93; ebrown2;

Elerad; freak369; kuuleimomi; Granniemose;

hirohito99; kris_kochanski; kristinafh; machkick;

matt_harney; Mike_Bracken; MrsNormanMaine;

Psychovant (our fanged host); Redmaple; Scott29;

Shadow8, Sordid-1, and susidee34.


Several exceptional writers, including ed_grover, jkkelley, lisaw215 and BeeCharmer chose not to participate because of the shabby treatment Epinions has inflicted on its contributors lately.

Their decisions are understandable, but regrettable. They would have turned in some terrific pieces. Not being able to read them is our loss, of course, but it is a bigger loss for Epinions.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS