Movies from the ‘Classic’ Category

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Wallace Worsley directed this 1923 brilliant adaption of Victor Hugo’s book which stands to this day as the most famous cinematic version.

Starring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo and Ruth Miller as Esmerelda.

Quasimodo is a deformed (deaf and half-blind) bell-ringer of the famous Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Jehan, the evil brother of Dom Claude, the good and saintly archdeacon of Notre Dame, prevails upon him to kidnap the fair Esmeralda, the adopted daughter of Clopin, who is the king of the oppressed beggars of Paris’ underworld. The dashing Captain Phoebus rescues her from Quasimodo, while Jehan escapes. Phoebus is entranced by Esmeralda, and takes her under his wing.
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Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Friday, April 9th, 2010

John S. Robertson directed this 1920 version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famed book. John Barrymore’s performance as Mr. Hyde received many plaudits on the release of this adaption and the film was an acknowledged success.

Dr. Jekyll (John Barrymore) is a London doctor, progressive in his medical research, conservative and repressed in his personal life. A friend encourages him to explore the underside of life with a visit to a London music hall. Dancer Nita Naldi arouses Jekyll’s repressed sensibilities, and when she embraces him, the doctor runs off. (more…)

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Scrooge

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Scrooge is a 1935  film directed by Henry Edwards featuring Seymour Hicks as Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser who hates Christmas. It was the first sound version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, not counting a 1928 short subject that now appears to be lost.

Hicks had played the role of Scrooge on the stage many times beginning in 1901, and again in a 1913 British silent film version. The 1935 film differs from all other versions of the story in one significant way – most of the ghosts, including that of Jacob Marley, are not actually shown onscreen, although their voices are heard. Only the Ghost of Christmas Present (Oscar Asche) is actually seen in full figure – the Ghost of Christmas Past is a mere shape with no discernible facial features, Marley’s Ghost is seen only briefly as a face on the door knocker, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is just an outstretched pointing finger.
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