The Hunchback of Notre Dame Blu Ray Review
| | Video Codec: MPEG-iv AVC (32.90 Mbps) Resolution: 1080p Aspect ratio: 1.37:i Original aspect ratio: ane.37:one Audio English: DTS-Hd Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit) English: DTS-Hard disk drive Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit) Subtitles English language SDH, French, German SDH, Spanish English SDH, French, German language SDH, Spanish (less) Discs Blu-ray Disc Unmarried disc (1 BD-fifty) Playback | | Price Listing cost: Amazon: $xiv.99 (Salvage 25%) New from: $12.95 (Salve 35%) In stock at present  Movie rating 78 ratings. 58% |
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(1939)
Quasimodo, the mocked and vilified bellringer of Notre Dame, rescues the gypsy Esmeralda from hanging, sweeping all of Paris into a fight for justice.
For more than nearly The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the The Hunchback of Notre Dame Blu-ray release, see the The Hunchback of Notre Dame Blu-ray Review published past Michael Reuben on June 12, 2015 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.0 out of 5.
Director: William Dieterle
Writers: Sonya Levien
, Victor Hugo, Bruno Frank
Starring: Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell, Edmond O'Brien, Alan Marshal
Producer: Pandro S. Berman
» See full cast & crew
The Hunchback of Notre Dame Blu-ray Review
Whipping Boy
Reviewed by Michael Reuben, June 12, 2015
Victor Hugo's 1831 novel about the deformed bell-ringer who lives in the tower of Notre Dame Cathedral has been adapted for film and television over a dozen times, including the 1996 animated characteristic by Disney, but two versions remain iconic. The commencement is the 1923 silent classic starring Lon Chaney, the "human being of a k faces". The 2d, and arguably more famous, is the remake released in 1939 by RKO Radio Pictures, which aspired to outdo Chaney's version in every respect, not simply with audio just also with scale. To play the grotesque title character, whose name, Quasimodo, is familiar even to people who have never seen any of the films, Charles Laughton endured hours of daily makeup and wore layers of latex and other paraphernalia during one of the hottest summers and then recorded to create an enduring image of unimaginable suffering. His efforts were rewarded with stellar reviews and as impressive box part.
With a budget of over $1.viii million�an enormous sum at the time�the 1939 Hunchback�was one of the most expensive films from RKO to appointment. (Citizen Kane, released past the studio two years later, cost less than half as much.) The product recreated 15th Century Paris on RKO's ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Its simulation of the famous cathedral stood 190 anxiety tall, complete with gargoyles and stained glass windows. Hundreds of extras were recruited to populate the streets, and producer Pandro S. Berman, for whom Hunchback was a passion project, recruited managing director William Dieterle (The Life of Emile Zola), because of his renowned power to sculpt crowds for the camera. At Charles Laughton's insistence, RKO borrowed British makeup expert Perc Westmore from Warner to oversee the hunchback makeup.
Warner, which now owns the RKO library, is releasing The Hunchback of Notre Dame on Blu-ray both singly and as role of The Gilt Year Collection�1939. While the negatives for many RKO films have been lost, Hunchback is one for which the original camera negative exists. Warner's MPI facility has performed a new browse, with stunning results.
Well-nigh adaptations of Victor Hugo'southward novel tone down its starkly tragic catastrophe, but both the 1923 silent pic and the 1939 RKO version take the boosted pace of "softening" the villain, who, in Hugo'due south story, is the Archdeacon of Paris and, nominally, the protector of Quasimodo. Old Hollywood did not expect its audience to have ecclesiastic dignataries equally villains (and indeed, the Production Code would accept prohibited it). And so the Archdeacon (Walter Hampden) became a gentle and saintly figure, while the wicked deeds he committed in Hugo'south novel were handed off to his younger blood brother, Frollo (Cedric Hardwick), who in this film, is the Chief Justice of Paris appointed by Male monarch Louis Xi (Harry Davenport). As the picture opens, Frollo and the Male monarch are visiting the establishment of a printer (Charles Halton), who has simply acquired the latest technological marvel: a press printing. The Male monarch is fascinated by the device's potential, but Frollo urges that information technology exist destroyed, lest the people get too knowledgeable and insubordinate against their betters.
Another of Frollo's concerns is immigration. The city is becoming crowded with undesirables, especially gypsies, whom Frollo holds in item contempt. When the King's guards are ordered to bar such people from entering, a young gypsy adult female, Esmeralda (Maureen O'Hara, in her showtime American motion-picture show), slips past the gate to earn money with her dancing. She besides hopes to petition the King to lift the ban on her people. Esmeralda'due south beauty captures the center of many men, including the handsome soldier Phoebus (Alan Align), a passionate street poet named Gringoire (Edmond O'Brien), and Frollo himself. In a fateful moment, Esmeralda is also observed past Quasimodo (Laughton), the misshapen bong-ringer of Notre Dame, who has snuck away from his post, against the advice of his patrons, the Archdeacon and Frollo, to watch the street shows where Esmeralda is performing. Discovered by the crowd, the unfortunate outcast is crowned "King of Fools", simply because he is deafened from years of bell-ringing, he does non at kickoff sympathise that he is existence mocked.
As is oft the case in Victor Hugo'south tales, the poor and downtrodden pay the price for the sins of the rich and powerful. Here, Quasimodo is publicly lashed, and Esmeralda is sentenced to hang, all due to the machinations of Frollo. The primary justice even conspires to have the cathedral'south status as a sanctuary revoked, so that Esmeralda can no longer remain there safely under Quasimodo'south watchful centre. But Hugo was too worldly and realistic to paint the Parisian masses as gentle saints, and neither does the film. The crowds that hound Quasimodo are merciless, and when the poet Gringoire stumbles into the beggars' society ruled by Clopin (Thomas Mitchell), he finds an equally merciless and greedy den of thieves, swindlers and killers�although, as Clopin says in their defense, they've been driven to these extremes by necessity, and their crimes are dwarfed by those of the nobility. (Frollo's evil behavior confirms his betoken.)
In i of the film'due south most famous scenes, Clopin leads the beggars of Paris in an attack on Notre Matriarch Cathedral, just to be repelled past Quasimodo with planks, chunks of stone and molten metal rained downwards from higher up. The irony is that both those storming the edifice and the lone effigy defending it share the aforementioned goal, which is to protect Esmeralda. That she is ultimately saved, and Frollo defeated, brings no comfort to the gypsy girl's lone protector. He remains a sad and isolated figure, looking out over Paris from high atop his bell tower, hearing only his bells and occasionally speaking to the stony gargoyles sitting adjacent to him.
Although Hunchback isn't a silent flick, Laughton's functioning is primarily concrete. He has few lines, and most of them are short; some are just a single word repeated ("Water!" "Sanctuary!"). Just he conveys great pathos just in the style he lifts and drops his head, keeps his altitude from people, quails before Frollo (who is supposedly his protector), shyly approaches Esmeralda and generally conducts every interaction like a creature who does not believe he is entitled to be treated as human being. In a different season, Laughton's operation would have been Oscar-nominated, along with many other aspects of the film, just in the crowded field of 1939, only the score and audio were acknowledged (and neither won).
The Hunchback of Notre Dame Blu-ray, Video Quality
Venerable cinematographer Joseph H. August shot The Hunchback of Notre Matriarch in the same year that he also shot Gunga Din for RKO. Warner's MPI facility has created a new transfer for this release, using the original nitrate photographic camera negative. I have been advised that several portions of the negative had deteriorated past the betoken where restoration was possible, and for those sections of the film, a second-generation source (probably a fine-grain master positive) was used. Withal, specific scenes were not identified, and it certainly was not obvious in viewing that any item scene or shot suffered a falloff in quality.
The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is the jewel in the crown of the new titles issued by Warner for The Golden Year Drove� 1939. The item of the lavish Paris re-cosmos is superb, as is that of the numerous oversupply scenes, whether the mass of extras are seen in long shots from the superlative of the Notre Matriarch Cathedral tower or at closer range on the street or in the huge set up that serves as the beggars' headquarters. The chaos of the scene in which the beggars storm the cathedral has never been more than clearly reproduced, even with the effects, some of them created optically, required to prove Quasimodo's repelling of the oversupply. The elaborate Festival of Fools where Esmeralda dances and Quasimodo is "crowned" are stunning in their clarity, and the night scenes where Quasimodo chases Esmeralda through the streets of Paris feature deep blacks and precise shadows. Contrast and delineations of gray are first-class throughout. The grain pattern is fine, natural and movie-like.
Of the new 1939 titles, this is the but i that Warner has mastered on a BD-50, and the boilerplate bitrate of 32.ninety Mbps reflects the availability of greater space, also as the willingness to use it. This is the approach normally taken by the Warner Archive Collection, and i can only promise that it is a sign of things to come up, considering the results are splendid.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame Blu-ray, Sound Quality
The Hunchback of Notre Dame'due south original mono soundtrack is encoded as lossless DTS-HD MA 1.0, and information technology's very skilful. The sounds of Paris street life, the printer's shop, the halls of justice, the beggars' convention, Quasimodo's hideous public whipping and, near important, the clang of his sonorous "friends", the bells in the tower, are effectively reproduced, even if the dynamic range doesn't have the breadth of a contemporary recording. Alfred Newman's classical score lends a kind of melodramatic dignity to the proceedings.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras
Warner released The Hunchback of Notre Matriarch on DVD in 1997 with a backside-the-scenes documentary, an interview with Maureen O'Hara and a trailer. The interview and trailer have been included on Blu-ray only not the documentary. Instead, there is a vintage Warner cartoon and an MGM short, both from 1939.
- Interview with Maureen O'Hara (480i; 1.33:ane; 12:09): The title is somewhat misleading, as only function of this actress is devoted to interviewing the motion picture's co-star. Much of the running time is devoted to an overview of Hunchback's production and release.
- Drunk Driving (480i; one.37:1; 21:27): Part of the MGM "Crime Does Not Pay" series, this short dramatizes a tragic instance of what we now call "DUI".
- The Lone Stranger and Porky (480i; one.37:i; seven:26): The title of this Looney Tune is self-explanatory.
- Theatrical Trailer (480i; one.37:i; ane:fifty): "See the storming of Notre Dame! See the face of the Hunchback!"
The Hunchback of Notre Dame Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
RKO issued The Hunchback of Notre Dame�as a twelvemonth-end holiday release but received complaints from patrons at Radio Metropolis Music Hall that it was a horror film, non a family picture. The reaction is understandable for the times, but by any standard, Hunchback�does not vest in the horror genre. Quasimodo may be a sad and deplorable outcast like Frankenstein's monster, but he never poses any danger to anyone. The dangers come from other people, who cannot see by Quasimodo's distorted exterior to the childlike innocence inside, as Esmeralda eventually does. Charles Laughton'southward power to projection that quality throughout every inch of his frame, even shrouded in specialty makeup appliances, is a triumph of screen acting and 1 of the many reasons why the 1939 Hunchback remains a classic. Highly recommended.
Blu-ray Bundles/Box Sets with The Hunchback of Notre Matriarch (1 package)
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