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Thursday, July 24, 2008

LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT... found at last?!

So I'm up late, working on the video that will chronicle what happened during those eight days that Lisa and I spent on our epic journey north, and I was about to call it a night when I happened to check Ain't It Cool News and found this story.

Apparently, a horror film expert has located a pristine copy of London After Midnight, the 1927 silent movie starring Lon Chaney and widely considered to be the most lost film of all time...

The print is said to currently be residing in the vaults of Time-Warner under the alias The Hypnotist. Until now, it's been thought that London After Midnight had been lost for all time, because the only known copy was destroyed in an electrical fire at MGM in 1967.

This month has already witnessed the discovery of the full print of Metropolis (and I joked then that maybe London After Midnight could be next). Dare we hope that, after so very long, we might finally behold what is thought to be the last great thriller of the silent era... and what many have said was the finest performance of Chaney's career?

Heck, this actually makes me feel like I can go to bed happy after hearing about The Rocky Horror Picture Show remake :-P

Seriously though: if this is true - and I pray that it is - let us hope and pray that London After Midnight is given a full-bore restoration effort. 'Twould be great on my DVD shelf along with Metropolis (whenever it comes out).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't it be great if they found the lost spider pit sequence from 1933 King Kong too? That would be the best find for me.

John W. Morehead said...

Is there any update to this? Confirmation or disconfirmation? This is the first I've heard of it, and I'm surprised it hasn't been reported elsewhere since.

Anonymous said...

They did find that, it was in the deluxe edition of the anniversery collection.