The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)

I reckon that this has to be the saddest of all love stories ever written - in any language! Although top billing goes to the pathetically grotesque Lon Chaney as the bell-ringer "Quasimodo", I think the plaudits must go to Patsy Ruth Miller as the persecuted gypsy "Esmerelda" in this 1923 adaptation of Victor Hugo's story. The score is hauntingly effective as both battle prejudice, jealousy and enmity from high and low society; with plots for revolution against the rather despotic rule of Louis XI never far from the theme. Chaney's make up is not great, even by the standards of the day, and it would not look out of place in a "Tarzan" film, but that matters little to the wonderfully evocative efforts from director Wallace Worsley to enshrine this classical story of lust, power and sadness to film, with a narrative that emphasises more of the emotional aspects of the story than many of it's successors. Particularly effective is the use of light and staging (partly Parisian, partly Californian) too. 2¼ hours may look long, but this positively flies by - rarely, if ever, making you want it to hurry up. Great stuff.