''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (in French ''Notre-Dame de Paris'') is a 1956 French-Italian CinemaScope film version of

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

's 1831 novel, directed by Jean Delannoy and produced by Raymond Hakim and Robert Hakim. It stars American actor

Anthony Quinn Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known professionally as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican-American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental v ...

and Italian actress

Gina Lollobrigida Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida (born 4 July 1927) is an Italian actress, photojournalist, and politician. She was one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s, a period in which she was an international sex symbol. As o ...

. The film is the first version of the novel to be made in color. In the tradition of many

sword and sandal Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum (pepla plural), is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or Biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budge ...

spectacles, Quinn and Lollobrigida are the only two actors in the film who actually speak in English; the rest of the cast is made up of French actors who have had their voices dubbed into English. In the French version both Quinn and Lollobrigida speak French. Anthony Quinn's portrayal of the hunchback Quasimodo is less disfigured than most other portrayals. Instead of having a huge hump and a hideously deformed face, he only has a small curve in his spine and a slightly deformed face. The film is one of the few adaptations to use Victor Hugo's original ending; although Esmeralda is killed by a stray arrow rather than hanged. Esmeralda's last words were: "Life is wonderful" ("C'est beau, la vie"). A

voiceover Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. ...

narration tells us at the end that several years afterward, an excavation group finds the skeletons of Quasimodo and Esmeralda intertwined in an embrace.

Plot

Quasimodo, the hunchback

of Notre Dame Cathedral, falls in love with the gypsy Esmeralda

. When Esmeralda is condemned as a witch by Claude Frollo Alain Cuny, the priest who longs for her, Quasimodo takes her into the Cathedral to save her. But in a misguided rescue attempt, the people come to free her and Quasimodo defends the Cathedral, but they burst through the front door just as soldiers arrive and shoot arrows. One of the arrows hits Esmeralda as the crowd graves her, and Quasimodo sees her die. When Frollo come up, Quasimodo throws him off the tower of the Cathedral, and then goes to find Esmeralda's body at a old dungeon site the dead are taken, where she is left, and Quasimodo mourns her.

Cast

Reception

The film was the biggest grosser in Paris in the 1956-1957 season with a gross of $603,000 on admissions of 1,064,061. It had the third most admissions in France for films released in 1956 with 5,687,222 admissions. The film earned rentals of $2.25 million in the United States and Canada.

Comic book adaptation

* Dell

Four Color ''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', was an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...

#854 (July 1957)

References

External links

* *
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame''
at

Trailers From Hell ''Trailers from Hell'' (branded as ''Trailers from Hell!'') is a web series in which filmmakers discuss and promote individual movies through commenting on their trailers. While the series emphasizes horror, science fiction, fantasy, cult, and expl ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956 Film) 1956 films 1956 horror films 1950s historical horror films Italian historical films French historical films Films set in the 1480s 1950s French-language films Films based on The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Films directed by Jean Delannoy Films set in Paris Films set in religious buildings and structures Films with screenplays by Ben Hecht Films scored by Georges Auric Films produced by Robert and Raymond Hakim Films with screenplays by Jean Aurenche Films with screenplays by Jacques Prévert Films adapted into comics Films about Romani people 1950s Italian films 1950s French films