THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (Wallace Worsley, USA, 1923, 8 [was 7] R)

It’s easy not to remember how, despite Lon Chaney’s star billing (and iconic performance) that Quasimodo is largely absent from the middle section of the movie and that the principal conflict is over Esmerelda and claims on her by several men, the hideous Quasimodo very much not among them. 

Other surprising revelations on what was not my first view of this film (one of the first silents I ever saw because it was an easy find, often playing on the A&E Network) … Quasimodo is much more of a Christ figure than you might think (he says “I thirst,” one of His words from the Cross, while tied up in the public square, post corporal punishment, prompting his fateful liaison with Esmerelda). But he’s also much...