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Disfigurement: Major Films  
TitleHunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
Alternative/Original Title
DisabilityDisfigurement
CountryUSA
Length115
GenreCostume drama
Rating4
DirectorWilliam Dieterle
CastCharles Laughton Cedric Hardwicke Thomas Mitchell Maureen O'Hara Edmond O'Brien Alan Marshal
NotesB/W. So far the definitive version. Maybe Gerard Depardieu will play the part one day, though he's mite too large. Laughton plays Quasimodo with such a misshapen body and face that his film has provoked some outcry from those concerned with disability issues. Yet this is a film which examines these issues as well as race. In fact it is a didactic film from the very start challenging the attitude to the outcast gypsies and revealing the quality of ugliness to be a side-show. Quasimodo is elected the King of Fools in a ceremony in which the hierarchical order was reversed. This is a film full of surprises and ideal as a subject for discussion.

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