At first, a black bird flies circles in the sky overhead.An outline of a car - with its headlights on - emerges almost imperceptibly, filmed with tremendous depth of field, as it plows through the swirling snow toward the camera.presents Victor Hugo""s Immortal Classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame" - to the sound of the Notre Dame Cathedral""s bell ringing.] This second screen version""s screenplay, again by Charles Lederer, brilliantly transformed Ben Hecht""s and Charles MacArthur""s newspaper classic - the George S." A second spry, veiled little Old Lady (85-year-old Estelle Winwood) had just ascended he stairs and given his door two double-knocks.]In many ways, the film has become prophetic and mirrors he violence of contemporary news headlines.Notoriously, the film is linked to and may have triggered the political assassination (copy-cat) attempt by inconspicuous John Hinckley on President Ronald Reagan in 1981, illuminating his dangerous fixation on actress Jodie Foster, and resulting in the assassin""s infamous media-hero status.