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London After Midnight

post #1 of 15
7/20/02 at 9:10am
Thread Starter 
THere is one make up that has inspired me more than any other by far. It is Lon Chaney from London After Midnight. I own a model kit of it as well as several toys. The only thing is that I have never seen it. Most people haven't because it is a lost film...until now. Read this: <a href="http://www.chud.com/news/july02/july19london.php3" target="_blank">http://www.chud.com/news/july02/july19london.php3</a>
That's GREAT news. Even is we only get to see a little footage, that would be cool.
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post #2 of 15
7/20/02 at 12:24pm
I remember reading about the sheer torture Chaney put himself through to create his characters. He pretty much crippled himself with heavy prosthetics and the glues and powders he plastered himself in were highly toxic.

I seem to recall that his London After Midnight "make-up" was actually achieved by using wires to pull his lips away from his teeth and other gruesome techniques. Amazing dedication, and a true artist in every sense of the word.

I think it was in Doug Bradley's "Behind The Mask", his biography of all the great horror "make-up" actors - something he's no stranger to himself. Great read, if you haven't already got it.
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post #3 of 15
7/20/02 at 1:30pm
Didn't A&E do something on this guy?
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post #4 of 15
7/20/02 at 1:46pm
As a kid I used to have this Dennis Gifford book with loads of pics of old horror stuff, including one of Chaney in London After Midnight. Gave me nightmares for weeks! (along with the equally grotesque The Man Who Laughs)
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post #5 of 15
7/21/02 at 4:16am
I'd love to see this movie, but I wonder if it's so well regarded partly because it's a "lost" movie. I've seen the remake (Mark of the Vampire from 1935 with Lugosi) and it was *ahem* BOR-RING. I'm sure that Tod Browning and Lon Chaney did a better job, but I'm not expecting a masterpiece.

Yes, there was a documentary made for cable about Chaney. It was pretty good. I think it was Turner Classic Movies, though, not A&E. Unless they did an episode of Biography about him. I have yet to see the "Man of a Thousand Faces" biopic with James Cagney... I'll have to take a look at that one someday.
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post #6 of 15
7/21/02 at 2:30pm
Quote:
WGON:
I heard that this movie doesn't exist! That the last print of this film was destroyed in a fire at I think it was MGM back in the day (well of course back...). My girlfriend told me this news after she read it in a Vampire magazine after I spent about 3 years of my life independently searching for a copy. Though, I do think that Forrest J. Ackerman might have a copy or some clips of it...

Tod Browning (FREAKS) did do a remake to his own film though (that is he did the original London After Midnight) called MARK OF THE VAMPIRE- I'm going to chec that out.
Did you read the article that Bill posted the link to?
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post #7 of 15
7/22/02 at 12:48am
This ranks only below The Day the Clown Cried as a film I would desperately love to see, but knew there was no chance in hell of it. Sweet.
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post #8 of 15
10/26/02 at 3:57am
The reconstruction of this "lost" film is showing on TCM Halloween night. According to their website, they've put together a sort of slideshow version of the movie.

From <a href="http://turnerclassicmovies.com/ThisMonth/Article/0,12608,473,00.html:" target="_blank">http://turnerclassicmovies.com/ThisMonth/Article/0,12608,473,00.html:</a>

Quote:
<img src="http://turnerclassicmovies.com/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i0/VampireTales_TT_392x156_091120021241.gif" alt="" />

LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31
8:00 pm (ET)/5:00 pm (PT) LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927)

Turner Classic Movies' October line-up will be haunted by obscure horror films and classic creep shows culminating in the premiere of Lon Chaney's lost masterpiece, LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927) on Oct. 31, Halloween night, reconstructed entirely from stills. It will be the first time the film has been seen in nearly 50 years in any format, as the last print known to exist was destroyed in a vault fire at MGM in the 1960s. Listed on the American Film Institute's Ten Most Wanted "Lost" Films, LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT is referred to by proponents as the most famous of lost films. Though no actual film footage is known to exist, award-winning filmmaker/archivist Rick Schmidlin (he worked on the restorations of Touch of Evil and Greed) has been able to faithfully reconstruct the entire narrative through an extensive collection of more than 200 still photographs and a complete continuity script. A new score by acclaimed composer Robert Israel will complete the presentation. In it, Lon Chaney showed off his talents as a make-up artist, creating what became the first real American vampire, complete with the elements that children today associate with the sinister creatures: eyes bulging in their sockets, menacing pointed teeth and a cape.

Producer: Irving Thalberg
Director: Tod Browning
Stills Restoration Director: Rick Schmidlin
Screenplay: Waldemar Young, Joseph Farnham, Tod Browning (based on the story "The Hypnotist")
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, A. Arnold Gillespie
Cinematography: Merritt B. Gerstad
Editing: Harry Reynolds, Errol Taggart
Music for stills restoration: Robert Israel
Cast: Lon Chaney (Burke), Marceline Day (Lucille Balfor), Henry B. Walthall (Sir James Hamlin), Percy Williams (Butler), Conrad Nagel (Arthur Hibbs), Polly Moran (Miss Smithson).
BW-40m. Closed captioning.
When I first heard TCM was airing this, I originally thought they had actually found film footage. This will be cool, but I'm slightly disappointed. Oh well, I'll still watch it.
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post #9 of 15
10/26/02 at 4:02am
TCM is also showing the remake, Mark of the Vampire (35), as well as Vampyr (32), Nosferatu (22), Isle of the Dead (45), The Vampire (57), and The Fearless Vampire Killers (67).
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post #10 of 15
10/28/02 at 11:16am
One of my fave Chaney makeups...but how can you pick just one? Anyway, I too thought this film was lost. Would love to see any version I can get my hands on, although according to all I've read, just like in MGM's MARK OF THE VAMPIRE,

SPOILER
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He's not really a vampire, just a cop or something dressed up like one for some melodramatic 20's movie reason .

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Another "lost" film I'd like to see--"The Man Who Laughs" with Conrad Veidt.
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post #11 of 15
10/28/02 at 7:52pm
I think The Man Who Laughs still exists, although it's probably hard to find. I got curious about what the other "10 most wanted" films were, found the list:

<a href="http://www.silentsmajority.com/LostFilms/afilist.htm" target="_blank">http://www.silentsmajority.com/LostFilms/afilist.htm</a>

The film "Camille" at the top of the list is probably an adaptation of Sheridan LeFanu's story of the same name, a female vampire story that seems to have been adapted almost as many times as Dracula (it's the inspiration for Vampyr, also showing on TCM thursday).
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post #12 of 15
10/28/02 at 7:56pm
Quote:
The Country Dellamorte Bears:
This ranks only below The Day the Clown Cried as a film I would desperately love to see, but knew there was no chance in hell of it. Sweet.
I think The Day The Clown Cried is one of those that is better left to the imagination. But, having said that, I'd jump at the chance to see it. (Harry Shearer has seen it, btw). Personally, I'd love to see John Waters' Art Linkletter biography. And my ultimate unfulfillable film fantasy would be to see footage of the Marx Bros. from when Gummo Marx was still with them (he was supposedly "the funny one", but quit showbiz before they started making movies).
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post #13 of 15
10/29/02 at 5:28am
Quote:
Z-Man:
I think The Man Who Laughs still exists, although it's probably hard to find. I got curious about what the other "10 most wanted" films were, found the list:

<a href="http://www.silentsmajority.com/LostFilms/afilist.htm" target="_blank">http://www.silentsmajority.com/LostFilms/afilist.htm</a>

The film "Camille" at the top of the list is probably an adaptation of Sheridan LeFanu's story of the same name, a female vampire story that seems to have been adapted almost as many times as Dracula (it's the inspiration for Vampyr, also showing on TCM thursday).
"Camilla" is the LeFanu story about the female vampire. "Camille" is a movie about a dying woman in love.

From IMDB:
Quote:
Plot Summary for Camille (1926)

Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hope of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Camille discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her.
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post #14 of 15
10/29/02 at 8:32am
Must....

get.....

TCM......

Seriously, this is stunning news. I believe they did the same sort of thing with Von Stroheim's Greed a year or so back. It's so gratifying to hear that not only is this restoration getting a lot of love and respect but also that a relatively obscure Lon Chaney horror picture is on the AFI's most wanted list.

Life sometimes makes you smile in that most special of ways.
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post #15 of 15
10/29/02 at 2:18pm
In Dracula, when Jonathan gets off the carriage at night, he holds up in a graveyard waiting for the Counts carriage to come pick him up. He sees a ghost at this time, and it is never clearly defined what the ghost wants. What is made obvious, is that he takes shelter in the entrance to a mausoleum. THe resting place of Camilla.....
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