‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’: Hugo’s Moving Drama

A film set in 15th-century Paris centered on Notre Dame Cathedral and characters embodying beauty and ugliness.
‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’: Hugo’s Moving Drama
(L–R) The Archdeacon (Walter Hamden), Esmerelda (Maureen O’Hara), and Gringoire (Edmund O’Brien), in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” RKO Radio Pictures
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NR | 1h 56min | Drama | 1939

The year 2024 marks the 85th anniversary of director William Dieterle’s film “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” based on Victor Hugo’s novel and set in 15th-century Paris. It’s also the year the now-restored Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame reopens after a ruinous fire in 2019.

Rudolph Lambert Fernandez
Rudolph Lambert Fernandez
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Rudolph Lambert Fernandez is an independent writer who writes on pop culture.