This is all the actual original frames that survived from the fire back in 1967. I restored them all as best as i could. I hope you enjoy the remains of this lost Lon Chaney classic.
It might even be listed on eBay as I type: someone in the UK bought a canned reel for 3 pounds and it turned out to be a long lost Charlie Chaplin film that sold for I believe some $470,000.00!
Were you talking to me? If so, it's Zepped. There's a bit of it posted here, actually back in 2010, and I only heard of this very recently. You can also paste the main keywords from my post onto Google and you'll find the news article with the man's photo.
Every time I rummage through my old underwear drawer, I hold out hope that this film will be down there under all my old underwear. But alas, it never is.
Sadly, this film is very likely lost forever. MGM was very meticulous with the accountability of their film prints - they ensured that all of their theatrical prints were returned. It was also a common practice in those days to melt down extra nitrate prints for their silver content. This makes it fairly doubtful that there are any prints out there in private hands or in foreign film vaults. Still, we can all hope. The movie is reportedly not very good, but finally seeing Chaney in this classic makeup on film would certainly be a joy.
London After Midnight was a success with audiences when it was first released. However, it received mixed reviews from critics which rarely has any merit. I also read an article many years ago that critics who reviewed the film shortly before the 1965 MGM vault fire said it was not good, but this was decades around the late 50s to the 1960s. This is more than likely what you were referring. Never say never, this same vault fire also had 1927s Metropolis and a Three Stooges short all which have turned up in the last 10 years. It is rumored that there is a print in existence in a private collection in Argentina per TCM.
this is supposedly the most sought after horror film of the silent era. Would love to see its entirety. Saw photos clips in the 60's when there was "Monster Magazine" and Famous Monsters of Filmland
@@spookyartistonyt those old films were made of nitrate and the vaults they were stored in would occasionally burn down. London After Midnight was in one of these fires and was sadly lost in the fire so there isn't any surviving copy as far as we know.
@@fernandomaron87 no, you are wrong, and this is true. The last know copy was destroyed in a vault fire in 1965. Also, this film was from the late 1920s and printed on nitrate which is a highly decomposable and extremely volatile organic compound.
Like many lost films, you have to be convinced that somewhere, in some vault in some former Communist country or somewhere in an attic or basement or some trunk in a storage locker, a beautiful copy of the film with Chinese or Russian titles is lurking, and that whoever finds it will hopefully realize that there is something special about it. A few years back someone found some other lost horror film footage and of course 30 years ago, the lost scenes from "Frankenstein" 1931, were discovered as well...
A print of Red Headed Woman was found in the possession of George V of England.. in pristine condition I have a copy of the complete version of Frankenstein. from 1931....the film preservationists cut the scenes back into the movie
The most important found film for me is Nosferatu, which Bram Stoker's widow hunted down almost to non-existance, but luckly a copy was saved by Universal themselves who claimed to the widow it has been destroyed, but secretly kept, in order to study the shots for Dracula (1931). It's like Dracula saved Nosferatu from being destroyed for good by Bram Stoker's widow. That's some incredible stuff.
@@fernandomaron87 The French archives preserved NOSFERATU from the beginning, so "hunted down almost to non-existance" is a gross exaggeration. It wasn't just "one copy" that was saved, because the court order was unenforceable in most European countries.
Thank you for this upload! I just finished watching the Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and this was sitting here waiting for me. Lon Chaney's character always scared me in this movie, when i was a kid, and I never saw anything but photos.
Fine work! There is precious little to be seen from this, and it's a shame. I enjoy the musical choices you made ... thank you for your efforts + for sharing here. Lon Chaney shall not die!!
sure, I know it's a compilation of enhanced chronological movie stills set to music, but I enjoyed your musical selections so much that I watched the video thru twice. This is probably the closest modern audiences will get to seeing this lost film so many thanks for your efforts.
Lon Chaney's character here is absolutely horrifying. One of the most unnerving faces I ever did see. I also heard Marion Lorne was in this, who plays/played aunt Clara in Bewitched. Remarkable film.
does Lon Chaney's character remind anyone else of the Hat Box Ghost from The Haunted Mansion? I wonder if the creators of the ride were thinking of him at the time
Thanks for this; truly a labor of love. I still believe this movie will be found someday - if not in mint condition, then at least as a partial bootleg copy, like "Road to Mandalay" was found a couple of years back. (Does anybody know if a Mandalay restoration is in the works?) Who knows? Maybe a REALLY GOOD copy of this exists, somewhere; after all, if the Mary Pickford-Owen Moore "Their First Misunderstanding" from 1911 can be found in a New Hampshire barn in 2009, anything's possible!
Thanks for posting. Always been a Lon Chaney fan. Too bad the movie was destroy in a fire. Hope someday someone is cleaning out an attic somewhere and they find another copy.
A really far out proposal would be for some film editor,producer and director to film a new London After Midnight and somehow incorporate these stills into it
They used to show this film at the school for the deaf in Santa Fe New Mexico around Halloween time. back in the 50's into the early 60's. Is it possible that in that bone dry climate that a print still exist up the the attic or rafters of that old school?
Someone on Reddit posted a picture of a RU-vid comment saying that a school for deaf people had screened this movie on Halloween around the 1950s or 60s, there’s gotta be a surviving copy of the film somewhere in that building. I even read somewhere that the school’s basement was flooded and everything was moved to a storage closet, the school is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I researched the school and it seems like it’s still there and it’s opened!
@@valeriemacias6285 an eBay seller was selling film cans for vintage tapes and it was shipping from the same country, somebody assumed that one of those cans is the movie itself, the items were sold out. However another person emailed the school but they never got a reply, another user managed to grab info from a guy whose mother used to work at that school they said this. This is from the comments “his Mom worked at the school’s museum until the new management took over. She left when they took over. He says that whenever the new management took over they took the old artifacts of the school and stuffed them in a storage closet. The storage closet is in the main building of the school. The main building is called Dillon Hall”
Even if these are production or publicity stills, it’s great these exist/existed to make this montage. I’ve heard varying opinions about how good the original movie was, but I would still love to see it if a good print ever appears.
Someone somewhere who's been carefully guarding a print may be waiting for the copyright to expire. Which happens sometime this year (2022). So...fingers and toes crossed!
It seems impossible that it's completely gone. Someone, somewhere has it in a can in their attic and just doesn't know. Or it's mislabeled as someone's wedding film.
An estimated 75% of all silent films are lost so why the hell do you think it is impossible? Our film storage capabilities weren't exactly great back then, plus the type of film used was much more prone to damage. It is more likely that it is lost forever then it is just hanging around somewhere mislabeled. In actuality some of the most popular silent films of the era are lost, it is not like London after midnight is some anomaly.
Its film like this that made me wanna watch it. But all I have to say is "Damn!". Chaney make up sure is amazing to watch in action. I hope that this film get discover one day.
Not joking, I saw a copy of this film entirely. Family member got it. I hope someone restores and remastered it. It traumatized me. It's a brooding film.
Literally get in touch with your family member, do you realise how important the discovery of this film would be around the world!? We need to find this film!
none of these photos are 'frames' from the film. Whether they're called stills, promotionals, they are all one in the same. Stills show up on venues like ebay all the time. Promotionals that may contain stills also show up from time to time like in old [archived] newspapers, heralds, magazines or press kits.
Though it sucks that we probably won't have a copy, I'm so glad that there are at least plenty of still shots & the script. Imagine if those were gone too
don't get me wrong i love all the classic horror films but honestly i would have rathered something like Lugosi's dracula to have been burned if given the ultimatum. there's already so much content out there in terms of vampires and dracula especially from the silent era. but for something like london after midnight to be permanently lost is really unfortunate to say the least. Lon Chaney was amazing just watching this gives me chills
I've always had been curious about who this character was. I never had a chance to buy the monster magazine featuring this Lon Chaney character on the cover. I only got a clue when I watched "The Man With 1000 Faces" that it was Lon Chaney.
Das Phantom der Oper was a 1916 silent film. The film, also known as Das Gespenst im Opernhaus, is notable for being the first film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. The film is now believed to be a lost film. No copies, photographs or even a poster of the film remain. All that is known is that it was made in Germany in autumn 1915, directed by Ernst Matray, starring Nils Chrisander as the Phantom and Aud Egede Nissen as Christine, and Raul played by director Ernst Matray
The true phantom of the 1916 version is not knowing anything about it. Also, I'm curious as to what the first phantom would've looked like. Lon Chaneys Masque of the red death sequence easily made him my favorite of all the phantom actors.
.....some big time collector has it in their collection and doesn't know it--mislabeled or buried among some bulk that was never sorted; it will eventually turn up !
Kevin Brownlow told me that the Cuban Film archive is locked and unattended - it hasn't been searched or catalogued - bearing in mind that it was a playground for the rich and famous before the revolution - maybe a good place to search for a copy of the film???????
There was a 1950s or early 60s history of movies show that actually shown some clips of London after Midnight. I remember because it showed Lon Chaney in several films and the little clip was freaky .
I.m sorry, it seems to me that this nothing more than a condensation of the 2002 TCM "reconstruction" of this lost film made from a multitude of on-set promotional photos. The video-generated titles are the same as the TCM version. Why you felt you had to add video-effect scratches will remain a mystery to me. There is nothing here that people could not have already seen in the TCM version available on the 2-DVD set called LON CHANEY COLLECTION.
The surviving artifacts related to this film have been scrutinized so minutely over the decades that it has become very apparent that the only great thing about this otherwise so-so film is the spellbinding production stills, which are gothic masterpieces. If the film were to turn up and was screened, a lot of silent film buffs would probably feel the need to hide their disappointment.
heyyy, Youuu muggles! I´ve heard and read in many puplications (many years before) that someone has reconstructed this film picture by picture. With old shots from frames. - And that´s why i came here. Maybe THIS IS THE ONE !?!
I read this many years ago: there is a compete surviving 9.5 mm print with French subtitles that is owned by a private party. Anyone else know about this? 🎞🤔
TCM, Turner Classic Movie Channel, had done this very ame thing, if not this is the same. Initially, Robert Osborne of TCM had claimed in ads for the upcoming Halloween night lineup of movies, the lost folm of London After Midnight was to be aired. When we, I and friends of mine, had discovered this was a photo film and not THE film, we were upset. The same people who reconstructed the silent film Greed to it's full length from its edited version, were the same ones who photo reconstructed this movie. It's on a multi-disc set of Chaney films. Rumors had flown on the internet since 2000 about the film being found. Last true know report was in the 1970s or 1980s somewhere that an old movie theater that had be burnt to the ground by a fire. The last know print of this film was in there. Also, Turners had no dirt flashes to make photos look like old film. I will say that I have seen and know this film from photos and the TCM run. Every so often a new photo seems to appear. There were mixed reviews of those who originally saw it in the theater. Some loved it and some hated it. One guy even claimed the movie drove him so insane that he killed his girlfriend. The judge didn't buy into his isanity plea and tossed him in jail. The documentary UNIVERSAL HORROR, which may be on RU-vid, is on the Universal Monsters set. It talks about this and many other great films. The guy claiming insanity is referenced there. What would have Dracula and Frankenstein looked like if Chaney played them? Before his death, Universal guaranteed him those rwo rolls as part of his contract negotiation. He diedfrom cancer right after making his only sound film, a remake of The Unholy 3. It's about a traveling group of con-artists. Now they'd just use the internet to scam.
@@Bryan-vb7dl Maybe that guy is waiting to get a good dollar figure before he gives it away. I’m sure it would be worth a lot of money -especially to Universal!
Cool I loved it the pictures from this movie look awesome I love them hopefully one day they will find the movie looks really good. Although there is a good chance it is lost forever. I did hear something about them maybe finding some sort of negative recently but not sure if that is just rumors. Tod browning remade London after midnight round about 1935 as Mark of the vampire that is a really awesome movie I highly recommend that one to. Also some of the music here is really good what is the music that starts at 14 minutes it goes really well with the movie.
So even the Rick Schmidlin reconstruction is just stills and a soundtrack. I've been left with the impression that at some point in the distance past a copy of the film was chopped up for still frames and the rest discarded. Or is there some other more likely scenario?
1-From Russia with Love-Huma 2-Iron horse-Kevin Macleod 3-Classical Christmas Favorites27-Smith Productions & Kevin MacLeod 4-Toccata and Fugue in D Minor-Bach 5-The Master-Ruby Terry 6-Impending Doom-Kevin Macleod
There seems to be a lot more Lon Chaney vampire (1 character) in these 15 min than there is Bela Lugosi (as both Count Mora AND the actor character, end frame) in Mark of the Vampire! MOTV is good but could have been so much better: there's way too many soporific monologues by Lionel Barrymore, whom I usually enjoy, but I found his MOTV role way too overpowering. A little goes a long way. He's good when he talks about the wolf bane, but we got it the first time. No need to go on and on and on and on and on and on. You get the picture. One pays to see a film called "Mark of the Vampire" to see the vampire(s)... aka Bela Lugosi and Carroll Borland!
They HAD to use Barrymore He was an MGM regular and an AA winner He was one of their prestige stars... If you want to blame someone-blame lugosi's agent who should have bargained for better terms for his client : higher pay and more screen time
if we could time travel back in time we could save this movie in just a matter of time we could save these films ya know in a matter of time we just have to wait
