A LONG HISTORY OF QUASIMODOS.

Byline: Terry Lawson Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

The Hunch is back, and makeup artists mourn. In the four previous big-screen adaptations, the prosthetics, plastics and appliances used to mold mere actors into a larger-than-death character inevitably described as misshapen usually earned as much attention as the actual performance itself.

But the upside of Quasimodo's drawn deformities in Disney's ``The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' is the focus is more on character than the credibility of his afflictions. The alliance of the animators and Tom Hulce, who provides the voice, has created a Quasi as memorable as any in the four live-action adaptations. And considering the competition, that's an achievement almost as monumental as Notre Dame itself.

On his first trip to the tower, in 1923's silent ``The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' the Hunchback was played by ``The Man of a Thousand Faces'' - and at least one hump - Lon Chaney. Chaney was known for his mastery of makeup, and his Quasimodo is no disappointment. He devised a 40-pound hump, and to keep it in place, a 50-pound harness. No wonder he looks so pained.

But Chaney's real feat, as politically incorrect as it seems these days, is the way he made his Hunchback seem like something less than human; he based his movements on those of an extremely agile ape. Nevertheless, Chaney found all the pathos in the piece, and in silent films, pathos played especially well.

The next version, made in the magical movie year of 1939 (the same year that produced ``The Wizard of Oz,'' ``Gone With the Wind'' and ``Stagecoach''), is the best of the live-action ``Hunchbacks,'' and with its impeccable art direction, sets and costumes, and a supporting cast that includes Edmond O'Brien (in his first screen role) and Maureen O'Hara, it might have been a classic even without Charles Laughton.

But Laughton moves the movie beyond beautifully mounted melodrama with a performance so rich and nuanced, we see through the convincing grotesqueness of his twisted body and into Quasimodo's tortured soul. It is an indication of how stiff the competition was that year that the film received only one Oscar nomination, for Alfred Newman's score.

Anthony Quinn next tried on the hump in a 1956 French-Italian co-production, which originally wore the title of Hugo's novel: ``Notre Dame de Paris.'' Since the version released here was dubbed, it's hard to discern if Quinn was as uncomfortable with the original dialogue as he seems to be with everything else, but when his Quasimodo meets his fate, he seems relieved in an entirely different way than he should.

Faring far better was Anthony Hopkins, who larded on the latex to play Quasimodo in a made-for-television adaptation (whose title was reduced to a simple ``Hunchback'' for video) in 1982. As would be expected, Hopkins not only digs deep to uncover the Hunchback's psychic pain, he also adds a little leer to his longing observation of the Gypsy Esmeralda (Lesley-Anne Down). His Quasimodo may just have a little bump on the brain, as well.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Film legend Lon Chaney plays Quasimodo in 1923's sil ent ``The Hunchback of Notre Dame.''