The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Wallace Worsley, Universal Super Jewel, 1923, from Hugo. Lon Chaney is Quasimodo; Patsy Ruth Miller is Esmeralda. Chaney built the face in Room 5, about three and a half hours, plaster hump of some twenty pounds. The cathedral façade went up on the back lot. Irving Thalberg pushed Carl Laemmle into the $1.25 million, second only to Uncle Tom’s Cabin among Universal silents. Chaney later said the role was the one he had wanted. The crowd scenes are the money. The tenderness is the makeup not quite hiding the eyes.