The Hunchback of Notre Dame

A plea against racism and war by the Palatinate-born director (Wilhelm) Dieterle. The emigrated author Bruno Frank was hired for the screenplay, emphasizing the socially critical aspects - humanism and progress against superstition and church power. With the beginning of the Second World War, the work acquired an additional signal function for the present. Quasimodo's suffering under torture became - according to Dieterle later - the suffering of oppressed, enslaved humanity under the "bestiality of anachronistic wars." Emigrant artists also participated in other areas. For example, the choreographers Ernst and Maria Matray designed the dance scenes, the composer Ernst Toch worked with Alfred Newman on the music, and several actors such as Siegfried Arno, Curt Bois and Gisela Werbezirk were given smaller roles. More than 300 architects and craftsmen built a film set unparalleled in Hollywood history: The replica of Notre Dame Cathedral towered so high that warning lights for air traffic had to be installed. (Klaus Davidowicz)