> The 1939 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a pet project of RKO Studios' producer Pandro S. Berman; he was trying to raise the studio's profile in Hollywood, where it was beginning to develop a reputation as a studio whose own productions took a backseat to the work it released from independent producers like Walt Disney and David O. Selznick. RKO budgeted The Hunchback of Notre Dame at $2.8 million, the second highest budget in the studio's history.

> Van Nest Polglase reconstructed medieval Paris in a lavish set built on location in the San Fernando Valley. The cathedral stood 190 feet high and included gargoyles, vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows, all at a cost of $250,000. Polglase also incorporated scenic pieces from Lon Chaney's silent version.

> Bela Lugosi, Claude Rains, Orson Welles, Robert Morley and Lon Chaney, Jr. were among the actors considered for the title role before producer Berman chose Laughton. At Laughton's insistence, RKO borrowed make-up man Perc Westmore from Warner Bros. at a cost of $10,000. To turn Charles Laughton into the deformed bell ringer, Westmore covered half of Laughton's face with sponge rubber, adding a protruding eyeball lower than the average. Laughton's other eye was covered with a milky contact lens. The hump consisted of an aluminum framework stuffed with four pounds of foam rubber, and the rest of Laughton's torso was padded with rubber to create a sense of the muscles developed from pulling on the bell ropes. It took two and a half hours to apply the makeup.

> Charles Laughton insisted that, as Lon Chaney had done, he would wear a heavy hump to reinforce the character's sense of deformity. He repeatedly rejected Westmore's designs for lighter-weight humps until Westmore snapped, "Why dontcha just act it?" Laughton shouted, "Don't ever speak to me like that again, you hired hand!" and stormed out of the room. Westmore got his revenge when Laughton finally tried on the hump and full makeup. When the actor said he was thirsty and asked for a drink, Westmore shook a bottle of 7-Up and sprayed it in his face, then kicked him in the rear.

> Thomas Mitchell, who plays the king of the beggars, took on a second role without credit when he played the judge who sentences Quasimodo to be whipped.

> Some of Esmeralda's screams when she is being tortured were actually tracks laid down by Fay Wray when she starred in King Kong (1933). Tracks of the sailors screaming in that film were also used for the mob's attack on the cathedral and Frollo's fall from the bell tower.