LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT found??

[Mondo Kane]

From Dish Entertainment magazine:

London after Midnight
[quote]
World premier of the restored version of Lon Chaney's lost 1927 vampire masterpiece, seen for the first time in nearly 50 years. TCM (Oct.31)

This is certainly big news to me!
Does anybody have any info on how/where this "lost" film was finally found?

[Vampyr]

This is really great news......I can't wait! Thanks for letting us know

[Mondo Kane]

Ehhhh....Not-so-great news.

I just did some more searching on the web and here are the details for "restored version of Lon Chaney's lost 1927 vampire masterpiece":

From moviepoopshoot:

Turner Classic Movies is bringing back the dead -- in film terms, at least -- by resurrecting the granddaddy of Hollywood's silent vampire movies, LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.

TCM has commissioned veteran film doctor Rick Schmidlin, who restored the silent film classic GREED, which aired on TCM in 1999.

MIDNIGHT is MGM's 1927 silent film starring Lon Chaney and directed by Tod Browning, who went on to direct Hollywood's first DRACULA, starring Bela Lugosi, in 1931. The film's original negative and all prints were destroyed in a studio fire in the early 1950s.

"LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT has been, next to GREED and THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, probably the most famous of the lost films," said Schmidlin, who has also earned kudos for restoring Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL for Universal Pictures.

Schmidlin will re-create a facsimile of MIDNIGHT by using 200 original photograph stills of the film that were discovered along with the film's original continuity script in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' archives. Schmidlin will reshoot those black-and-white still photographs by employing motion control technology to create a replica of the film.

"After reading the script and the continuity, I realized that this could be told totally in photo stills and still be a very complex, compelling, articulate story," Schmidlin said.

The MIDNIGHT re-creation is being rescored by Robert Israel, who also rescored GREED.

TCM will premiere the movie Oct. 31. (Story courtesy of THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)

Welllll...It's still apparent that the original film will always and forever be lost. But I do give the guys kudos for at least TRYING to bring the movie back to life for us fans to witness.

The TCM version that we will see runs for an hour long. The good thing is that since the film is silent, we will not miss out on any original sound/dialouge (I know, DUH!)
The bad thing is that I'm not sure that 200 photographs is worthy enough of making this a satisfying experience.
I don't know man, We'll just have to wait and see how this "motion control technology" works out.

[Dimension X]

Looks like TCM is keeping this under wraps for now. Here's what their schedule shows for Oct. 31 ("Vampire Classics"):

08:00 PM /
D: BW-0m

09:00 PM Mark Of The Vampire / 1935
Vampires seem to be connected to an unsolved murder. Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Bela Lugosi. D: Tod Browning. BW-61m

10:15 PM Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey / 1932
Classic tale of a young traveller finding himself in the sinister castle. Julian West, Maurice Schultz, Rena Mandell. D: Carl Theodor Dreyer. BW-72m

11:30 PM Nosferatu / 1922
A beautiful woman risks he life to end a vampire's plague of death and pestilence. Max Schreck, Gustav Von Wangenheim, Greta Schroder. D: F.W. Murnau. C-94m

01:00 AM Isle Of The Dead / 1945
The inhabitants of a Balkans island under quarantine fear that one of their number is a vampire. Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Helene Thimig. D: Mark Robson. BW-72m

02:15 AM Vampire, The / 1957
An experimental treatment turns a small-town doctor into a ravening vampire. John Beal, Coleen Gray, Kenneth Toby. D: Paul Landres. BW-76m

03:30 AM Fearless Vampire Killers, Or Pardon Me But Your Teeth Are In My Neck, The / 1967
A bumbling professor tracks vampires in the wilds of Eastern Europe. Jack MacGowran, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate. D: Roman Polanski. C-108m

I'm sure they'll have an article on the restoration in October.

October looks like a good month for silent horror movies. Here's what TCM has lined up for their "Silent Sunday Nights":

Oct. 6
12:00 AM Eyes of the Mummy, The / 1918
An Egyptian priest terrorizes the Englishman who eloped with his priestess. Pola Negri, Emil Janning, Henri Liedke. D: Ernst Lubitsch. BW-64m

Oct. 13
12:00 AM Der Golem / 1920
A 16th century Rabbi creates a giant clay monster to defend his people, then loses control of it. Paul Wegener, Albert Steinr|ck, Lyda Salmonova. D: Carl Boesse, Paul Wegener. BW-91m

Oct. 20
12:00 AM Haunted Castle, The / 1922
At a remote castle, a man tries to prove he didn't murder his brother years earlier. Paul Hartman, Olga Tschechowa, Paul Bildt. D: F.W. Murnau. BW-69m

Oct. 27
12:00 AM Nosferatu / 1922
A beautiful woman risks he life to end a vampire's plague of death and pestilence. Max Schreck, Gustav Von Wangenheim, Greta Schroder. D: F.W. Murnau. C-94m

[Vampyr]

Well.......After reading the last few posts I just felt that a message from Vampyr was in order~















BTW: Beethoven is weak but holding her own. Today the vet said she looked good considering her condition

[ctyankee]

Originally posted by Mondo Kane
Ehhhh....Not-so-great news.

snip ...

Welllll...It's still apparent that the original film will always and forever be lost ... snip

Ya never know. Could be in somebody's old trunk right now, just waiting to be discovered. Wouldn't be the first time .... and hopefully not the last.

[Scot1458]

Damn! After reading the first few posts, I thought that it WAS found.

I'll still watch this, and I'm sure it will give us a "feeling" as to what the real movie was, but I feel like not seeing Lon Chaney Sr. actually move will really deter from this project.

Can you imagine watching PHANTOM OF THE OPERA with stills?

[NavinJohnson]

It sure won't be the same experience; but it will be a special treat all the same. I will be taking the night of Oct. 31 off.

[Mr. Gore]

My issue of the October Channel Guide Magazine arrived today from Charter Communications. It lists London After Midnight on TCM at 7:00 p.m. Central Time on October 31.

[bboisvert]

Well, I know what I'll be watching on Halloween!

This is going to be interesting in a "documentary" sort of way... not anything like see the actual film, but it will at least give us a sense of what's lost. And -- who knows? -- maybe this will draw attention to the film and cause people to do another search through the vaults and attics?

[Pants]

Has anyone seen the new documentary about Robert Evans, "The Kid Stays in the Picture"?

The doc uses some revolutionary editing techniques combined with animation to make stills look a little like they are moving.

Some examples: cigarettes are made to look like they are burning by adding little animated smoke, character's heads apear to turn by morphing between two stills, a head from one picture is put onto a body of another, basicly the whole thing is like an incredibly elaborate photoshop project combined with flash animation and it really brings the story to life. The doc is 90minutes of stills and maybe 15minutes of film clips and is never boring. Really good doc, REALLY breakthrough technique that I imagine will be duplicated a lot in years to come.

[Damfino]

This is awesome news.

The use of 200 still photos for a 1 hour film implies approximately 20 seconds per photo. Adding camera effects (pan, zoom in/out, iris in/out and some animated effects) will help create the impression that we are not just watching still photos.

The concept of using still photos to make a movie was used to great effect in a French short film called "La Jetee". This film was remade as "Twelve Monkeys".

[Scot1458]

Here's the problem.

how will they do this without dialoge? On the LOST HORIZON they have some audion and show a few stills over the audio. It works pretty good, you get the general idea on what is going on.

With a silent film, how is the flow going to be handled?

Nethertheless, I can't wait to see it.

[Pants]

I imagine they have the script, so they can recreate all the title cards. That way we know what's going on. Other than that it will be just music I guess.

[greatjedi]

Though it's not what I had hoped for, this is still the best news I've heard all Day!!!

[Dimension X]

TCM has updated their web site for October. The only new information seems to be the length of the movie.

VAMPIRE TALES - 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.

[caligulathegod]

Mark of the Vampire that airs right after it is a sound remake, so it might help give an idea of the film, too. Especially right after watching the "restoration".

[Scot1458]

bump

this is on tonight. Set those vcrs.

[Vampyr]

I'm watching London After Midnight as I type. Darn.....I missed taping it as I got back from giving out candy at my neighbors house late At least the kids liked the candy

BTW: What I see I love

[Scot1458]

taped it.

very cool! I bet the real scenes of Chaney were just awsome to watch!

Although I admit, I'm a bit dissapointed by the ending!

Vampry

is the third movie tonight the one you get your name from? Is it any good?

[Vampyr]

Originally posted by Scot1458
taped it.

very cool! I bet the real scenes of Chaney were just awsome to watch!

Although I admit, I'm a bit dissapointed by the ending!

Vampry

is the third movie tonight the one you get your name from? Is it any good?

That's a very good question. It's either hit or miss. People either love that movie or hate it.

You may be surprised to know that I don't particullarly like it myself I chose my name because I like the vampire genre and German. It really has nothing to do with the movie of which you speak.

BTW: I have the DVD. Although I'm not crazy about the movie it's a nice item to have in my horror collection. I would advise that you give it a try. The only thing you have to loose is a little over an hour.

[Scot1458]

ok, here are some thoughts...

LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT - the ending totally threw me! I was dissaopinted.

Spoiler:

this was the epitome of a Scobby Doo ending

THE MARK OF THE VAMPIRE - What the f$%^?

that ending totally blew a great movie! I thougt the last scene was an outake or something!

VAMPYR - can somebody tell me what the hell is going on here??? If this thing did'nt have a little sound, I would have no idea what is going on!

Vampyr, I think this movie is from Denmark, not German.

[Vampyr]

Originally posted by Scot1458
ok, here are some thoughts...

LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT - the ending totally threw me! I was dissaopinted.

Spoiler:

this was the epitome of a Scobby Doo ending

THE MARK OF THE VAMPIRE - What the f$%^?

that ending totally blew a great movie! I thougt the last scene was an outake or something!

VAMPYR - can somebody tell me what the hell is going on here??? If this thing did'nt have a little sound, I would have no idea what is going on!

Vampyr, I think this movie is from Denmark, not German.

Per the IMDb:

Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (1932)
Also Known As:
Étrange aventure de David Gray, L' (1932)
Adventures of David Gray (1932)
Castle of Doom (1932) (USA: dubbed version)
Not Against the Flesh (1932) (USA)
Strange Adventure of David Gray, The (1932)
Vampire, The (1932) (USA: copyright title)
Vampyr (1932)
Vampyr, ou l'étrange aventure de David Gray (1932)
Runtime: Germany:65 min / USA:75 min
Country: France / Germany
Language: German
Color: Black and White
Sound Mix: Mono
Certification: Hong Kong:IIA / USA:Unrated

See ~ I told you it is hit or miss with this one. I never quite got it myself and am tired of watching it to figure it out. At this point I just consider the disc something to round out my horror collection.

I was very disappointed when I first watched it, as a friend of mine told me how "great it was"

BTW: I love Mark of the Vampire including the ending......It's really strange and different.......Very surprising........But that's just my opinion.

[Scot1458]

well, I admit Vampyr was ...different. I actually liked the last 15 minutes of it....though I still dont' know what the hell was going on.

watching Nosfertu now. Besides the title cards being gone, who the hell came up with this music? Tangerine Dream???

[bboisvert]

Originally posted by Scot1458
VAMPYR - can somebody tell me what the hell is going on here??? If this thing did'nt have a little sound, I would have no idea what is going on!

I didn't watch it last night, but I've always loved this strange little gem. Very odd atmosphere.

Here is one of the better reviews of it I have seen:

http://www.tvguide.com/Movies/databa...e.asp?MI=25416

which may help with your understanding of what was going on. The London After Midnight "restoration" was interesting. Strange that they would only air it once, though (they don't seem to be reshowing it at all this week). I wonder if they are considering a DVD release, maybe with a commentary track? That would be excellent.