London After Midnight

Some films were so popular in their day that it seems amazing that they could be lost today.
London After Midnight is arguably the most sought after lost film ever.

Yet some people still alive have seen it because the film hasn't been lost for such a long time : at least one copy had been preserved in the MGM vaults until 1967 when a fire destroyed it. Amazingly enough, it appears to have been the only remaining element of the film throughout the world.

Its popularity has so endured that TCM commissioned a reconstruction of the film by Rick Schmidlin from studio stills and a shooting script. It is available on DVD and proves the film was compelling because I was hooked even though it was missing its main attraction : the main actor's actual performance.



Tod Browning directing Lugosi

Not only does it star the "man of a thousand faces" Lon Chaney who had previously starred in hits like The Phantom of the Opera, but it was directed by his then frequent partner director Tod Browning who directed masterpieces like Freaks or Dracula. And the film was the team's most lucrative output.

The link with Dracula is not the only one. First of all, it was Universal's plans to lure the winning team for the picture. They managed to get Browning but the death of Chaney forced them to hire the play's actor Bela Lugosi.

And Lugosi was used once again as replacement for Chaney when MGM decided on a sound remake called Mark Of The Vampire (also available on DVD).

In any case, the film gives an idea of how Chaney would have played Dracula : he shows two of his "thousand faces" in the film. The police inspector and the hideous vampire for which he wears his usual heavy makeup, transforming his appearance completely.

In the recent TV series Whitechapel, the film is at the center of episode 5 from season 3. In it, London After Midnight is credited with an urban myth that it drove viewers crazy. This was spurred by a British criminal case in 1928 when murderer Robert Williams claimed that he had killed Julia Mangan in Hyde Park after seeing the film.

However in the series, one of the character supposedly has the last remaining copy of the film. I wish that were true.

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That's all for today folks!