Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame received numerous film treatments, but none as iconic as the silent Lon Chaney production playing this weekend during Silent Saturdays. Charles Laughton’s “Sanctuary! Sanctuary!” may echo on from the 1939 talkie, but it was the pathos mutely projected by the Man of a Thousand Faces, even through piled-on prosthetics, that truly rendered Quasimodo immortal.
On Saturday, October 30, prepare to be transported to the days of Beaux-Arts theaters and silent silver screens. If Chaney’s performance does not do the trick, then the Orpheum’s restored 1929 grandeur and the Wurlitzer pipe organ accompaniment surely will.
The evening kicks off with a 6:45 p.m. film discussion followed by a 7 o’clock organ prelude; the peasants start revolting at 7:30.
Sat., Oct. 30, 7:30 p.m., 2010
