WE RECENTLY HEARD a rumor that a print of this film has surfaced somewhere here on Planet Earth. If this be true, we all can certainly rejoice and be thankful. The last copy is said to have self-destructed some years ago. Well, as our Jewish friends say: "From your lips to God's ears!"
WE DO CONFESS that what we have just witnessed was a recreation of the movie that used stills, clever moving camera techniques and some appropriately atmospheric music to give the World at least a facsimile of just what this Todd Browning-Lon Chaney collaboration looked like on screen. The stills that were pressed into service, like all production related photos, are probably a trifle more dramatic than would be the actual scenes. Some also tended to deviate from the actual story; being done that way as to make them good for Lobby Cards and Movie Posters.
HOWEVER, WE DIGRESS! Being that the existing photos are all that the production team of this restoration/representation were able to press into service, there is little room for neither complaint nor "advice" on just how they should have done it. We do give our "Hat's Off" to them for what we now possess.
AS FOR THE story, it is very well mounted and the sets are convincingly spooky and definitely "Vampire-like". The action moves along at a breezy, yet well paced clip. Time is taken to carefully establish characters, relationships and any motives that one would have to have been the murderer.
IF THIS SOUNDS like a sort of drawing room murder mystery, that's because it is fundamentally conformed to that particular genre. But it also has elements of what has come to be known as "The Old Dark House" school of thrillers. The elements are there.
OF COURSE, WITH the subject matter being that of an infestation of Vampires in the definitely upscale London Suburban neighborhood, we have always put the pigeon-holing in the category of a Fright Film. This would make the story, scenario and the film itself in the position of "Hard to Categorize."
BEING THAT THIS is a silent and came out for release about three years before Dracula (Universal, 1931), its vampyr lore is somewhat different from that which has become a sort of pseudo-mythology for vampires/vampyrs, lychanthropes (werewolves) and man-made electronically re-animated dead tissue creatures (Frankenstein). It was refreshing to have some references to "the undead" that dates to the 18th Century. Also there is some deviant "facts" about the Vamp's daytime slumbering habits.
IN SOME REAL life and behind the scenes oddities, we find many coincidental facts that parallel both London AFTER MIDNIGHT and Dracula.
FIRST OF ALL, both films were directed by Todd Browning. Vampires, as a subject matter, were central to both stories. Although it was Mr. Lon Chaney who was planned to have the title-role of Dracula in the movie, his untimely and somewhat premature death removed him from us before he could fulfill that assignment. It went instead to Mr. Bela Lugosi; who had portrayed the Transylvanian Count on stage.
FINALLY, THE SCREENPLAY was adapted to the movies from a story titled "The Hypnotist" which was written by Director Browning, himself. This would seem to mean that the treatment that was the final product was done up as it was intended.
WE ALSO DISCOVERED that Director Todd Browning was full of the devil and did not mind fooling us a little, or even a lot! Isn't that right, Schultz?
WE DO CONFESS that what we have just witnessed was a recreation of the movie that used stills, clever moving camera techniques and some appropriately atmospheric music to give the World at least a facsimile of just what this Todd Browning-Lon Chaney collaboration looked like on screen. The stills that were pressed into service, like all production related photos, are probably a trifle more dramatic than would be the actual scenes. Some also tended to deviate from the actual story; being done that way as to make them good for Lobby Cards and Movie Posters.
HOWEVER, WE DIGRESS! Being that the existing photos are all that the production team of this restoration/representation were able to press into service, there is little room for neither complaint nor "advice" on just how they should have done it. We do give our "Hat's Off" to them for what we now possess.
AS FOR THE story, it is very well mounted and the sets are convincingly spooky and definitely "Vampire-like". The action moves along at a breezy, yet well paced clip. Time is taken to carefully establish characters, relationships and any motives that one would have to have been the murderer.
IF THIS SOUNDS like a sort of drawing room murder mystery, that's because it is fundamentally conformed to that particular genre. But it also has elements of what has come to be known as "The Old Dark House" school of thrillers. The elements are there.
OF COURSE, WITH the subject matter being that of an infestation of Vampires in the definitely upscale London Suburban neighborhood, we have always put the pigeon-holing in the category of a Fright Film. This would make the story, scenario and the film itself in the position of "Hard to Categorize."
BEING THAT THIS is a silent and came out for release about three years before Dracula (Universal, 1931), its vampyr lore is somewhat different from that which has become a sort of pseudo-mythology for vampires/vampyrs, lychanthropes (werewolves) and man-made electronically re-animated dead tissue creatures (Frankenstein). It was refreshing to have some references to "the undead" that dates to the 18th Century. Also there is some deviant "facts" about the Vamp's daytime slumbering habits.
IN SOME REAL life and behind the scenes oddities, we find many coincidental facts that parallel both London AFTER MIDNIGHT and Dracula.
FIRST OF ALL, both films were directed by Todd Browning. Vampires, as a subject matter, were central to both stories. Although it was Mr. Lon Chaney who was planned to have the title-role of Dracula in the movie, his untimely and somewhat premature death removed him from us before he could fulfill that assignment. It went instead to Mr. Bela Lugosi; who had portrayed the Transylvanian Count on stage.
FINALLY, THE SCREENPLAY was adapted to the movies from a story titled "The Hypnotist" which was written by Director Browning, himself. This would seem to mean that the treatment that was the final product was done up as it was intended.
WE ALSO DISCOVERED that Director Todd Browning was full of the devil and did not mind fooling us a little, or even a lot! Isn't that right, Schultz?