Review London After Midnight (1927)

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
London After Midnight Poster.jpg


Your thoughts on this movie......


London After Midnight, also known as The Hypnotist, is a 1927 American silent mystery film with horror overtones directed by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney, Marceline Day, Conrad Nagel, Henry B. Walthall, and Polly Moran. The film was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was based on the short story "The Hypnotist" by Tod Browning, who also directed the film.

The last known copy of the film known to exist was destroyed in the 1967 MGM vault fire,[4][5] making London After Midnight one of the most famous and eagerly sought after of all lost films. In 2002, Turner Classic Movies aired a reconstructed version,[6] produced by Rick Schmidlin, who used the original script and film stills to create this version.[7]

In 2014, the only contemporary poster known to exist for the film was sold in Dallas, Texas to an anonymous bidder for $478,000, making it the most valuable movie poster ever sold at public auction[8] (the 1932 film The Mummy had held the previous record for a poster's sale at public auction, selling for more than $453,000 in 1997)





Reception

The film grossed $1,004,000 at the box office domestically against a production budget of $151,666.14,[19] becoming the most successful collaborative film between Chaney and Browning, and the tenth highest-grossing film of 1927. However, contemporary accounts by filmgoers and critics suggest it was not one of Chaney and Browning's strongest films. The storyline, called "somewhat incoherent" by The New York Times[19]and "nonsensical" by Harrison's Reports,[20] was a common point of criticism.

A positive review ran in Film Daily, calling it "a story certain to disturb the nervous system of the more sensitive picture patrons. If they don't get the creeps from flashes of grimy bats swooping around, cobweb-bedecked mystery chambers and the grotesque inhabitants of the haunted house, then they've passed the third degree."[20].

The Warren Tribune noted that Lon Chaney is "present in nearly every scene, in a dual role that tests his skill to no small degree."[21] The review highlighted that this subdues Chaney's prominence and allows the plot to be better communicated, but it also causes the film to "not rank among his best productions."[21]

A review by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle noted: "It is pleasant to report also that there is none of the usual stupid comedy relief in London After Midnight to mar its sinister and creepy scheme. That ought to make it the outstanding mystery film of the year."[12] It however found fault in Tod Browning's direction because the film's atmosphere did not recapture "the intensely weird effect" found in The Cat and the Canary.[12]

Variety wrote that "Young, Browning and Chaney have made a good combination in the past but the story on which this production is based is not of the quality that results in broken house records, adding that, since Burke was "a detached character, mechanical and wooden", he failed to meaningfully connect with the audience.[22]

The New Yorker also wrote that the "directing, acting and settings are all well up to the idea," but "it strives too hard to create effect. Mr. Browning can create pictorial terrors and Lon Chaney can get himself up in a completely repulsive manner, but both their efforts are wasted when the story makes no sense."[23]

Film historian William K. Everson, who viewed the film in the early 1950s, called it "routine"[20] and inferior to the 1935 remake Mark of the Vampire.


Reconstruction

In 2002, Turner Classic Movies commissioned restoration producer Rick Schmidlin to produce a 45-minute reconstruction of the film, using still photographs.[7] The following year, the reconstructed version was released as a part of The Lon Chaney Collection DVD set released by the TCM Archives.

a 45-minute reconstruction of the film, using still photographs.


 
Last edited:

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
I like to think that this will be found one day.

But I do not believe that it would live up to it's reputation at all.

It could perhaps even be a major disappointment and have lots of hokey moments.

I believe that people who saw it said that Chaney walked like Groucho Marx in it!

Hardly a terrifying prospect!
 

Carol

Member: Rank 5
Do you remember the episode of Whitechapel devoted to it? Quite spooky in itself -
I know that production values can look very dated in older stuff - but I showed some clips of the original (silent) Nosferatu and Dr Caligari to some students the other week - no sniggers at all - some murmuring about planning to watch the whole thing)s_... I think you just have to in the right mood for vintage cinema to make it work.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Although the movie has yet to be found, somebody has found old home movie footage of someone who had clearly been to see the film at the cinema.

To clarify, someone has got hold of a movie camera and is enacting a scene based on Chaney's character from the film.

The question is, is the "actor" in question mimicking the movements of Chaney that he has so recently seen on the big screen? And is this the closest we will ever get to seeing how Chaney interpreted the character?


HOME MOVIES FROM THE 1920s HORROR HOME MOVIE. COUPLE SIT ON COUCH IN LIVING ROOM SET OUTSIDE. KISS. WOMAN LIES DOWN ON COUCH. VAMPIRE CRAWLS THROUGH WINDOW. BITES WOMAN'S NECK. SCARY. DRACULA, NOSFERATU DISAPPEARS. MAN TRIES TO REVIVE WOMAN. ACTORS BOW. GHOUL. VAMPIRE ACTS UP FOR CAMERA. VAMPIRE IS AN AMATEUR VERSION OF LON CHANEY SR.'S VAMPIRE DISGUISE FROM TOD BROWNING'S LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, WHICH IS A LOST SILENT HORROR FILM. THIS IS THE ONLY MOVING FOOTAGE OF A MAN THAT LOOKS LIKE THE MAN IN THE BEAVER SKIN HAT! COUPLE DANCES. KICK-LINE WHILE MAN PLAYS UKELELE. ACTING SILLY. MAN SHOOTING RIFLE. DOG IN FIELD. POINTER. HUNTING. CHILDREN. STOP MOTION. SPEEDED UP. TRYING TRICK PHOTOGRAPHY. HORSEBACK RIDING. YOUNG MEN. MONKEY CLEANING KITTEN'S FUR. MONKEY SCRATCHES. WHITE DOVES. MONKEY FALLS. MAN AT WINDOW. SQUIRRELS ON TREE. COLLEGE CAMPUS. PLAYING SOFTBALL. WALKING ON SIDEWALK. TRAIN IN THE STATION. COWS ON FIELD. CHUM, THE DOG ON ROOF. MONKEY PUPPET. LITTLE BOY WAVES. WOMAN FEEDS SQUIRREL. EATS OUT OF HER HAND. PEOPLE GET OUT OF CAR. CHUM, DOG, CHAINED UP. WAVE TO CAMERA. MAN SWEEPS. KISS. MAN TIPS HIS HAT. COMES HOME. BIG KISS AND HUG. GIRLS DANCE. RAGTIME DANCING. FANCY CAR. WILLIAMS COLLEGE. ELAINE AND ANDREW. MARION.



http://www.historicfilms.com/tapes/4505
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Top 10 Lost Horror Films


10. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1916)
9. THE CAT CREEPS (1930)
8. THE VAMPIRE (1913)
7, THE WEREWOLF (1913)
6. THE MUMMY (Various, pre-1932 version)
5. LIFE WITHOUT SOUL (1915)
4. THE GOLEM/THE GOLEM AND THE DANCER (1915/1917)
3. DRACULA'S DEATH (1921) plus DRACULA (1920)
2. LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927)
1. THE LOST KING KONG FILMS




 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
A ray of hope?...........


https://www.indiewire.com/2019/04/kevin-brownlow-film-preservation-lost-silent-movies-cuba-1202060615/?fbclid=IwAR1vlEDBoeSR4dos_nZjTQllH9bydc0qaYWZiOu_btwjvNCe0l03UWPokLk



But Brownlow isn’t content to just be honored for his own past work — he wants the work to continue, freely offering up advice about how future milestones in film preservation might be achieved. And where “lost” silent masterpieces might yet be found.

“I remember a Cuban refugee meeting me in London and saying all the films you’re looking for are in the Cuban archive,” Brownlow said, referring to Havana’s Cinemateca de Cuba, which is in possession of some 80,000 reels of historic films, including early American silent films. “So I spoke to a high ranking member [of the Cinemateca] on the telephone, and just to try and test the waters, I asked him if he had a print of the lost Erich von Stroheim film ‘The Devil’s Pass Key.’ And he simply said, ‘I’ve seen it.’”
 
Top