{"id":24904,"date":"2012-03-23T11:54:56","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T18:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=24904"},"modified":"2020-12-27T15:11:12","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T22:11:12","slug":"london-after-midnight-1927","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=24904","title":{"rendered":"London After Midnight (1927)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[<strong>Note:<\/strong> The following review is of a non-Peary title; click <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?page_id=4388\">here<\/a> to read more.]<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Honest, Sir James &#8212; they&#8217;re dead people from the grave! Vampires is what they are!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/London-After-Midnight-Poster2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/London-After-Midnight-Poster2-300x217.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-24908\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/London-After-Midnight-Poster2-300x217.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/London-After-Midnight-Poster2-128x92.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/London-After-Midnight-Poster2.jpg 801w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA detective (Lon Chaney) tries to help solve the mysterious death of a man found shot with a suicide note. Five years later, when the man&#8217;s body is found missing, Chaney returns to his house, which is now inhabited by two mysterious vampire-like creatures (Lon Chaney, Sr. and Edna Tichenor).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Detectives and Private Eyes<\/li>\n<li>Lon Chaney, Sr. Films<\/li>\n<li>Silent Films<\/li>\n<li>Tod Browning Films<\/li>\n<li>Vampires<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nIn his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em> book, Peary nominates Lon Chaney as one of the Best Actors of 1927\/1928 for his work in both <em>Laugh, Clown, Laugh<\/em> and <em>London After Midnight<\/em> &#8212; yet the latter title has been a notorious \u201clost film\u201d since 1967, and thus unavailable for viewing except in the form of a &#8220;creative reconstruction&#8221; using stills and relying upon the screenplay to flesh out the storyline. It\u2019s highly possible that Peary remembers seeing the film in revival sometime before the final (known) print was burned in an electrical fire in MGM\u2019s vaults &#8212; but of course his selection remains maddeningly difficult to verify, given that it\u2019s impossible to actually see Chaney in action. (Stills of his gruesome make-up don\u2019t quite count.)<\/p>\n<p>However, I&#8217;m reviewing it briefly here simply given that it would most certainly be considered a \u201cMissing Title\u201d, if only a copy is ever found! Regardless of whether or not it\u2019s a great movie &#8212; and many insist it\u2019s actually not &#8212; its fame as perhaps the most sought-after lost film makes it automatically a \u201cmust see\u201d for film fanatics, at least for the time being. Browning&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=13337\"><em>Mark of the Vampire<\/em> (1935)<\/a> was a remake, and similar spoilers abound, so I once again won\u2019t say much about the plot &#8212; except to note that, from the reconstruction, it looks like a reasonably enjoyable, darkly comedic whodunit which any fans of Chaney\u2019s work would likely want to see. (He plays both the detective investigating the murder, and the odd-looking man who has come to live in the deceased victim\u2019s house.) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lon Chaney&#8217;s incredible make-up<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/London-After-Midnight-Still.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/London-After-Midnight-Still.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"392\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24909\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/London-After-Midnight-Still.jpg 500w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/London-After-Midnight-Still-128x100.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/London-After-Midnight-Still-300x235.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, if it ever emerges, simply for its curiosity value!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0018097\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fantasticmoviemusings.com\/2015\/05\/23\/london-after-midnight-1927-stills-recreation\/\">SciFilm Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/moria.co.nz\/horror\/london-after-midnight-1927.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/437290\/london-after-midnight#articles-reviews?articleId=475\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Note: The following review is of a non-Peary title; click here to read more.] &#8220;Honest, Sir James &#8212; they&#8217;re dead people from the grave! Vampires is what they are!&#8221; Synopsis: A detective (Lon Chaney) tries to help solve the mysterious death of a man found shot with a suicide note. Five years later, when the man&#8217;s body is found missing, Chaney returns to his house, which is now inhabited by two mysterious vampire-like creatures (Lon Chaney, Sr. and Edna Tichenor)&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=24904\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-missing-title-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24904"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60013,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24904\/revisions\/60013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}