Esmeralda (1922 film)

Esmeralda
Directed by Edwin J. Collins
Written by Victor Hugo (novel)
Frank Miller
Produced by Master
Starring Sybil Thorndike
Booth Conway
Arthur Kingsley
Release date
  • 1922
Running time
 13 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Languages Silent film
English intertitles

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 on Esmeralda rather than Quasimodo. It was directed by Edwin J. Collins (who played the hunchback in the previous 1911 film The Hunchback (not to be confused with the novel by Hugo)) 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.

Cast