Product Review

Flicker Alley, in association with the Blackhawk Films Collection, is proud to present THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, starring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo, looking as if he had just stepped out from the original illustrations of Victor Hugo s novel. This new Blu-ray edition is pictorially much better than earlier video releases and represents the most sharp, most scratch-free condition in which this landmark film survives today.

HUNCHBACK is a huge production: the sets depicting 15th-century Paris covered nineteen acres of Universal Pictures back lot and included the façade of Notre Dame Cathedral. Filming took six months and the climactic sequence employed two thousand extras, but it s Lon Chaney s performance that makes the character unforgettable. THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME premiered at New York s Astor Theatre on September 2, 1923. The success of the film was immediate; it made Carl Laemmle and Universal Pictures a fortune, and turned Lon Chaney into a screen legend.

This edition is mastered from a multi-tinted 16mm print struck in 1926 from the original camera negative. (The film apparently does not survive in 35mm). Visible wear in the source material is diminished via the latest tools in digital restoration. A new symphonic score arranged by Donald Hunsberger was recorded in the Czech Republic by full orchestra conducted by Robert Israel.

Bonus materials include an essay and an optional audio commentary by Chaney scholar Michael F. Blake; rare footage (in standard definition) of Chaney out of makeup on the Cathedral set; a 1915 film, ALAS AND ALACK, in which Chaney plays a hunchback; a brand-new, dynamic HD photo gallery with over 100 original production and publicity stills; and an exciting, detailed digital reproduction of the original souvenir program.

This edition produced by David Shepard and Serge Bromberg; Special Contents Copyright 1991, 1996, 2007, 2014 by Film Preservation Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.