I’m finding that I’m increasingly a sucker for cheaply priced classic movies.

Today I picked up Hunchback of Notre Dame, with Lon Cheney. It is the black-and-white, silent movie, plus the theatrical organ soundtrack, complete with the occasional sound effect.

I haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but I found a number of things very interesting. It’s pretty clear that the folks that did the Walt Disney version of the movie had watched this movie. The Disney version appears to have more in common with the Lon Cheney version than it does with the novel, even to the point of copying scenes almost directly. I remember being amazed, when Disney did this movie, that they would think for a moment to do this story as a kids’ movie.

Anyways, I’ll probably watch the rest of the movie tonight.