Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
Lon Chaney in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923, dir. Wallace Worsley) (via) “There dwelt within the rocky fastness of the cathedral a creature whom the Parisians of that day knew as the ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’. Quasimodo. Deaf, half-blind - shut off from his fellow men by his deformities, the bells were the only voice of his groping soul. To the townspeople he was an inhuman freak, a monstrous joke of Nature - and for their jeers he gave them bitter scorn and hate.”

Lon Chaney in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923, dir. Wallace Worsley) (via)

“There dwelt within the rocky fastness of the cathedral a creature whom the Parisians of that day knew as the ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’.

Quasimodo. Deaf, half-blind - shut off from his fellow men by his deformities, the bells were the only voice of his groping soul. To the townspeople he was an inhuman freak, a monstrous joke of Nature - and for their jeers he gave them bitter scorn and hate.”

Conrad Veidt, in an early version of his make-up for his character in The Man Who Laughs (1928), who later served as the inspiration for The Joker. The permanent grin was achieved by drawing back the corners of his mouth with hooks attached to the sides of his dentures.  “Paul Leni, who made Waxworks, the cause of my coming to Hollywood, was the director of my picture, The Man Who Laughs, and we were all very happy about it. It was the Victor Hugo story of the man whose lips were cut away so that he has to go through life forever smiling, all his teeth showing in a horrible grinning grimace.  It took some months to make.  Sometimes I felt The Man Who Laughs never wanted to smile again.” -Veidt (1934), quoted in American Gothic: Sixty Years of Horror Cinema

Conrad Veidt, in an early version of his make-up for his character in The Man Who Laughs (1928), who later served as the inspiration for The Joker. The permanent grin was achieved by drawing back the corners of his mouth with hooks attached to the sides of his dentures. 

“Paul Leni, who made Waxworks, the cause of my coming to Hollywood, was the director of my picture, The Man Who Laughs, and we were all very happy about it. It was the Victor Hugo story of the man whose lips were cut away so that he has to go through life forever smiling, all his teeth showing in a horrible grinning grimace.  It took some months to make.  Sometimes I felt The Man Who Laughs never wanted to smile again.”

-Veidt (1934), quoted in American Gothic: Sixty Years of Horror Cinema

Charles Laughton as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939, dir. William Dieterle) (via) “When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door.”

Charles Laughton as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939, dir. William Dieterle) (via)

“When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door.”

Charles Laughton as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939, dir. William Dieterle) (via) “Why was I not made of stone, like thee?”

Charles Laughton as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939, dir. William Dieterle) (via)

“Why was I not made of stone, like thee?”