London After Midnight (1927)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Tod Browning

Writers:

Tod Browning (story)
Waldemar Young (scenario)

Release Date:

17 December 1927 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Tagline:

LON CHANEY in a great Scotland Yard Mystery

Plot:

The abandoned home of a wealthy man who supposedly committed suicide five years earlier is taken over by ghoulish figures - could they be vampires?

Plot Keywords:

Butler | Night | Maid | Vampire | Tomb

Cast

Lon Chaney	...	Professor Edward C. Burke
Marceline Day	...	Lucille Balfour
Henry B. Walthall	...	Sir.James Hamlin
Percy Williams	...	Williams, Balfour's Butler
Conrad Nagel	...	Arthur Hibbs
Polly Moran	...	Miss Smithson, the New Maid
Edna Tichenor	...	Luna, Bat Girl
Claude King	...	Roger Balfour
Andy MacLennan	...	Bat Girl's Assistant

Also Known As:

The Hypnotist (UK)

Runtime:

69 min (22 fps)

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Lon Chaney wore a set of false animal teeth that hurt him so much that he could only wear them for a few minutes at a time. The teeth Chaney wore were not animal teeth, but were made of gutta-percha, a hard rubber-like material. What gave him the most discomfort were the wire loops around his eyes.

Quotes:

Luna, Bat Girl: Remember... Lucille... you... are... doing... this... for... your... father.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook (1991)

User Ratings for a Lost Film....?

Hey, wait!! Hold it a second, guys....how can a film unseen by the general public for 75 years get any User Ratings? Granted, there may be some seniors around who saw the film as children, but are they the ones rating this film on IMDb? Or, are these merely false ratings made by silent film fans based on the reputations of Chaney and Browning and the existence of some tantalizing surviving stills from the film?

I think we need a reality check here: this film is lost, folks, and it's going to stay lost. All efforts to flush a print out of hiding have failed, including those of Turner, who owns the rights and have the most to gain by the film's recovery. (TCM will broadcast a stills-only re-creation of the film in October '02. Translation? Even the rightful owners of the film have given up hope! Does this tell you anything?) And, yes, while someone may have a print in a private collection, or in their attic, etc., it's a real longshot.

Don't get me wrong; the loss of this film is lamentable in the extreme. (The loss of any film is lamentable. The loss of any SILENT film is most lamentable. The loss of any CHANEY film is truly awful. And, the loss of any Chaney film featuring the coolest vampire get-up EVER is unspeakably awful!!!) But, I believe film fans need to let go of this one and move on. The reputations of Chaney and Browning will survive without this film. I believe our energies would be better spent putting pressure on archives and film libraries to release their long-held treasures to the viewing public, as there is a huge amount of silent material that HAS survived, but which goes unseen by all but scholars and the privileged few.