The macabre imagination that directorTod Browningput into his horror classics of the 1930s is why he was known as “the Edgar Allan Poe of Cinema.” A suave vampire prepares to take a deadly visit to England inDracula, and carnival sideshow performers seek revenge on deceitful outsiders inFreaks. Browning is known for these seminal horror movies, but did you know he made one of the most famous lost horror films of all time? The 1927 supernatural mysteryLondon After Midnightwas part of an extensive collaboration between Tod Browning and actorLon Chaney, whose physical transformations had him known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces.”Considered a highly sought-after “lost film” of the silent era, no one alive today has seen it.But that hasn’t stoppedLondon After Midnightfrom taking a legendary status and continuing to be influential, even becoming the reason why amodern horror monsterexists.
‘London After Midnight’ Is a Famous Lost Silent Film
The death of a rich old man at a mansion in London is declared self-inflicted by Professor Burke (Chaney), working alongside Scotland Yard, but this isn’t an open-and-shut case. Five years later,the estate is haunted by apair of vampires, a ghoulish woman, and the ghastly figure, The Man in the Beaver Hat (also Chaney). Burke returns, as do potential suspects in the death from years earlier. Ultimately, there is no real supernatural danger, it’s all part of an elaborate,horror-themed plan to uncover the killerof the old man. The Man in the Beaver Hat is Burke in disguise, who hypnotizes the prime suspect to reveal the truth.
The 1931 ‘Dracula’ is a Great Movie, But Not a Great Adaptation
Though Bela Legosi in an iconic Dracula, the original 1931 movie omits quit a bit from Bram Stoker’s novel.
According to filmmakerRick Schmidlin, who would have a personal connection toLondon After Midnight,Tod Browningand Lon Chaney made the 1927 film to get interest from Universal and secure the rights forDracula. Chaney’s role as Burke has more screen time, but it’s not difficult to see why Chaney’s other role became the more memorable part of this film’s legacy. Burke is presented as a stern, well-dressed man of the law. His appearance is nowhere as startling as the nightmare-inducing imagery of The Man in the Beaver Hat, afantastic transformationthat Chaney did with practical effects to manipulate his face and create a striking character design like he didto play Quasimodo and the Phantom.
Lon Chaney’s Vampire Almost Never Got To Scare Modern Audiences
While a review from 1927 didn’t find Browning’s direction remarkable, the writer did praise Chaney’s appearance by stating he “applies a figurative bit of ice to the vertebrae by walking in and out of scenes in properly horrifying makeup.” The documentary,Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces(2000) explains the process Chaney did:small wires distorted the actor’s face, creating too-wide eyes and holding his mouth in a grin; then shark-like teeth were put in his mouth. His vampire is nothing like the elegant Count (horror cinema’sfirst sex symbol) that Browning would put on screen in 1931; the freaky grin of The Man in the Beaver Hat has more resemblance to the 1928silent film that inspired the Joker.
After Chaney passed away in 1930, Browning lost a creative partner when he madeDracula, but teamed up with another horror icon,Bela Lugosi.Browning would then remake the silentLondon After Midnightinto the 1935 sound film,Mark of the Vampire, working again with Lugosi, with some changes to the plot and renaming characters. However, it didn’t earn the legendary status of the former.London After Midnightgot that special honor because of avault fire at MGM in the 1960s that destroyed many early films, including the only print ofLondon After Midnight. That might have been a finite burial, if not for the efforts in bringing it back to life.
The Influence of ‘London After Midnight’ Is Still Seen Today
This is where filmmaker Rick Schmidlin enters into the history ofLondon After Midnight. Back in 2002, Schmidlin was able to carefully reconstructthe lost filmby using photo stills of the original production for a Halloween broadcast onTurner Classic Movies.It’s more of a 50-minute slideshow, but the unusual experience adds to the mysterious appeal of the 1927 silent, black-and-white film that has only seeped further into pop culture. In the music world, the goth band, London After Midnight, took its name from Browning’s film. In the movie world,Chaney’s vampire was the major source of inspirationfor the appearance of the supernatural terror inThe Babadook(2014).Itbecame a gay icon by accident, but directorJennifer Kentintentionally had her creature resemble The Man in the Beaver Hat.
Kent said the vampire“really impressed itself on me” in a 2014 interview, before adding, “It’s just a face that’s been distorted — without CGI obviously — but manipulated so that it looks human, but almost not. And I think thatLondon After Midnight, shot with his face and his mouth pulled apart like that, is really frightening.” The collaboration between “the Edgar Allan Poe of Cinema” and “the Man of a Thousand Faces" has lived on in legend and pop culture. Never having the chance to see it for yourself builds onto the fascination surrounding it. One Google search can show what The Man in the Beaver Hat looks like, and the vintage quality can make it feel like a cursed image. Chaney and Browning were so effective asearly masters of horror, that the afterlife of their lost film is haunting cinema with no end in sight.
London After Midnight
