The Darling of Paris (1917)

You'd never know it from the title, but The Darling of Paris was a film version of Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. The titular hunchback (played by the forgotten Glen White) is downplayed in favor of gypsy dancing girl Esmerelda, here played by movie vamp Theda Bara. Esmerelda essential innocence and naivety were probably beyond the range of Bara, but audiences in 1917 would have lined up to see the star in a movie adaptation of the Los Angeles City Directory. The spectacular elements of the story were adeptly handled by director J. Gordon Edwards, who later helmed Theda Bara's successor Betty Blythe in The Queen of Sheba. Like all of Edwards' films (and most of Bara's), The Darling of Paris no longer exists. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi