I watched this too ! I loved the 1935 version. I don't see why this has to be a musical ??? The 1935 version told the story just fine....
Was the ‘35 version the first of the three played on TCM? That was the one I loved best too! Though I was a big fan of beautiful Debra Paget as a little girl, who played Cosette in the second TCM movie, I liked the first one best.
The third TCM movie that night was four hours long! I had to record that one to avoid staying awake until 3:00 in the morning! And then, guess what— we had new DISH boxes installed this morning so I lost the 4 hour version along with all our recorded programing, so I missed the final show.
We got the DISH thingy called The Hopper, where you can record on all TV’s in the home and can watch live programming independently from all other tv’s.
Thx.