I'm the first guy to say it, American cinema contains a truck load of bullsh*t. I'm also the first to admit that American cinema grow some of the most creative and influential directors of it's international history. This version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, for a "first times" cinema movie, was awesome.
I first bought this movie in the Vintage Entertainment Promo, who offered 3 classics on one DVD for seven bucks. I bought this one because it has Cabinet Of Dr.Caligari on it and with two films in bonus it was four bucks less than the Caligari DVD alone (marketing laws are a mystery for me).
This Wallace Worsley movie was one of the first ones to fully benefit the wonders of editing in USA. Worlsey shows hyper enthusiast camera work, fast paced editing and some perspectivism in his point of views that left me wanting more, even if the movie is 133 minutes, which is incredibly long for a movie of this date. The last sequence is a bit pompous, but hey, that's how Americans are doing cinema, with this noisy and flashy approach.
The acting was also dythirambical by Lon Chaney who played Quasimodo, who even without words was in my humble opinion way more convincing than some modern ones. Chaney overplays , yes, but he overplays as a freak who takes sadness heavier than the others and who joy makes happier than the others. He fully understood the essence of Quasimodo.
Esmeralada, as Patsy Ruth Miller look that generic actress from every damned first time movies, but makes it even more interesting with that tenderness/repulsion relation she has with quasimodo.
My "first times" cinema culture is very very thin (Approximatively 15 films), but i'm glad that i've seen this one and would recommend it to Griffith fans and to people who wants to know more about the origins of American cinema Very well done!
I first bought this movie in the Vintage Entertainment Promo, who offered 3 classics on one DVD for seven bucks. I bought this one because it has Cabinet Of Dr.Caligari on it and with two films in bonus it was four bucks less than the Caligari DVD alone (marketing laws are a mystery for me).
This Wallace Worsley movie was one of the first ones to fully benefit the wonders of editing in USA. Worlsey shows hyper enthusiast camera work, fast paced editing and some perspectivism in his point of views that left me wanting more, even if the movie is 133 minutes, which is incredibly long for a movie of this date. The last sequence is a bit pompous, but hey, that's how Americans are doing cinema, with this noisy and flashy approach.
The acting was also dythirambical by Lon Chaney who played Quasimodo, who even without words was in my humble opinion way more convincing than some modern ones. Chaney overplays , yes, but he overplays as a freak who takes sadness heavier than the others and who joy makes happier than the others. He fully understood the essence of Quasimodo.
Esmeralada, as Patsy Ruth Miller look that generic actress from every damned first time movies, but makes it even more interesting with that tenderness/repulsion relation she has with quasimodo.
My "first times" cinema culture is very very thin (Approximatively 15 films), but i'm glad that i've seen this one and would recommend it to Griffith fans and to people who wants to know more about the origins of American cinema Very well done!