Charles Laughton
Quasimodo
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1939 American romantic drama film starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara. [ 3][ 1] Directed by William Dieterle and produced by Pandro S. Berman, the film is based on Victor Hugo 's 1831 novel.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Directed by William Dieterle. With Charles Laughton, Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell, Maureen O'Hara. In 15th-century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral can save her.
- (12K)
- Drama, Romance
- William Dieterle
- 1939-12-29
Charles Laughton's biographer, Simon Callow, has called The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) the actor's last great screen performance, certainly the last in which he endured physical hardship and tapped his most painful inner conflicts to create a character.
- William Dieterle
- Charles Laughton
- Overview
- Production notes and credits
- Cast
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, American dramatic film, released in 1939, that is widely regarded as the finest adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel of the same name. It featured Charles Laughton in one of his most acclaimed roles.
Laughton portrayed an unlikely hero: the kind, misunderstood, and pitiable hunchback Quasimodo, the bell ringer at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful Rom (gypsy) named Esmeralda (played by Maureen O’Hara). However, Quasimodo’s adoptive father figure, the sexually repressed Frollo (Cedric Hardwicke), is determined to destroy the girl. After she falls in love with the soldier Phoebus (Alan Marshal), the increasingly unstable Frollo murders him. He then frames Esmeralda for the crime, and she is tried and sentenced to death. As she is being taken to the gallows, Quasimodo rescues her, and the two find sanctuary in the cathedral. Frollo, however, is determined to see Esmeralda killed, and during a struggle Quasimodo throws him off the bell tower.
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•Studio: RKO Radio Pictures
•Director: William Dieterle
•Writers: Sonya Levien and Bruno Frank
•Music: Alfred Newman
•Charles Laughton (Quasimodo)
•Maureen O’Hara (Esmeralda)
•Cedric Hardwicke (Frollo)
•Thomas Mitchell (Clopin)
- Lee Pfeiffer
In 15th-century France, the evil archdeacon of Notre Dame is Claude Frollo (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). Under his command is a deformed hunchback, Quasimodo (Charles Laughton), who is...
- (17)
- Charles Laughton
- William Dieterle
- Drama
Jun 4, 2015 · ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’. Laughton brought Ms. O’Hara, fresh from “Jamaica Inn,” with him to Hollywood to play the Gypsy girl Esmeralda opposite his extravagantly deformed Quasimodo in...
The films produced were not commercially successful enough, and the company was rescued from bankruptcy only when RKO Pictures offered Laughton the title role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), with Jamaica Inn co-star O'Hara.
