The Luck of the Irish Blogathon – The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

This is the fourth of 5 posts dedicated to The Luck of the Irish Blogathon being held over at Pure Entertainment Preservation Society

Tnx Tiffany and Rebekah for letting me take part!

“The press should be destroyed and the printer hanged for blasphemy. ” – Frollo

Number of Times Seen – 1 (17 Mar 2021)

Brief Synopsis – After a young Gypsy is accused of a crime in Paris, the bell ringing hunchback of Notre Dame Cathedral, who has fallen in love with her, does all he can to help her.

My Take on it – Great adaptation of the classic novel tat does a wonderful job bringing this story to life before or eyes.

Charles Laughton is superb in the title role and the makeup used helps create a great atmosphere for the story.

The rest of the cast is also great with Maureen O’Hara as the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda.

Edmond O’Brien, Alan Marshall, Thomas Mitchell and Cedric Hardwicke all help create such a poignant and powerful story with realistic characters.

The sets are quite exquisite to look at and help all even more realism to the story.

The story’s religious backdrop is executed really well and they are able to give the viewer a clear impression of the kind of word they lived in based on the way that Victor Hugo originally intended when he wrote the novel more than a Century earlier.

The film also has some great action scenes that also manage to keep the story engaging throughout.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The only movie screened at the very first Cannes Film Festival (the remainder of the festival was cancelled when Adolf Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September 1939). (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (7/10)