Esmeralda (1922)

Directed by

Edwin J. Collins

Genre

drama film, silent film, romance film, historical film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

13 min

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a silent film adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel, focusing on the gypsy girl Esmeralda and her romantic entanglements. It downplays the horror of the original story in favor of a melodramatic love story set in medieval Paris.

romanticmelodramatichistoricalsilenttragicatmosphericsoapy

What happens

Esmeralda is a 1922 British silent film and an adaptation of the 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo, with more emphasis on the character of Esmeralda rather than Quasimodo. It was directed by Edwin J. Collins and starred Sybil Thorndike as Esmeralda and Booth Conway as the hunchback. The film is considered lost, but extant still photos show a 40-year-old Thorndike who appears to be too old for the role of the young and virginal Esmeralda. This version emphasized romance and melodrama over horror. The film was remade again in 1923 as The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Universal Pictures, starring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo, in what is considered the classic silent film version. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• A Gipsy Cavalier (1922)
• A Tale of Two Cities (1922)
• Les Misérables (1922)
• Vanity Fair (1922)
• Diana of the Crossways (1922)
• The Wonderful Story (1922)
• The Knight Errant (1922)
• The Spanish Jade (1922)