Rent The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)

Silent Classic. - The Hunchback of Notre Dame review by Steve

This lavish adaptation of Victor Hugo's historical melodrama was Universal studio's most lucrative hit of the '20s. It is set in 1482 and focuses on the romance of the gypsy Esmerelda with a nobleman in a socially polarised Paris; of the arrogant, brutal aristocracy and the persecuted peasants.

Patsy Ruth Miller overacts and lacks appeal as the untamed dancing girl. What everyone remembers this for is Lon Chaney's extreme portrayal of the title character, Quasimodo, the ringer of the bells. It's Chaney who makes this a horror film at all, not just for his legendary make-up effects, the deformity and gymnastics, but for the strange, primal enigma of his character.

This is early cinema and it doesn't have the visual expressionism of some of the later silent horrors. But what it does abundantly present is spectacle with its huge cast of extras in period costume and the magnificent sets, particularly of the medieval cathedral.

This is the film where the Lon Chaney became a big star around the world. His Quasimodo remains definitive. This is a silent blockbuster. Chaney's demonic aura and the convincing recreation of fifteenth century Paris makes the original Hunchback the earliest classic of Universal horror.