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London After Midnight, also known as The Hypnotist, is a 1927 American silent mystery film with horror overtones directed by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney, Marceline Day, Conrad Nagel, Henry B. Walthall, and Polly Moran. The film was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was based on the short story "The Hypnotist" by Tod Browning, who also directed the film.
The last known copy of the film known to exist was destroyed in the 1967 MGM vault fire,[4][5] making London After Midnight one of the most famous and eagerly sought after of all lost films. In 2002, Turner Classic Movies aired a reconstructed version,[6] produced by Rick Schmidlin, who used the original script and film stills to create this version.[7]
In 2014, the only contemporary poster known to exist for the film was sold in Dallas, Texas to an anonymous bidder for $478,000, making it the most valuable movie poster ever sold at public auction[8] (the 1932 film The Mummy had held the previous record for a poster's sale at public auction, selling for more than $453,000 in 1997)
Reception
The film grossed $1,004,000 at the box office domestically against a production budget of $151,666.14,[19] becoming the most successful collaborative film between Chaney and Browning, and the tenth highest-grossing film of 1927. However, contemporary accounts by filmgoers and critics suggest it was not one of Chaney and Browning's strongest films. The storyline, called "somewhat incoherent" by The New York Times[19]and "nonsensical" by Harrison's Reports,[20] was a common point of criticism.
A positive review ran in Film Daily, calling it "a story certain to disturb the nervous system of the more sensitive picture patrons. If they don't get the creeps from flashes of grimy bats swooping around, cobweb-bedecked mystery chambers and the grotesque inhabitants of the haunted house, then they've passed the third degree."[20].
The Warren Tribune noted that Lon Chaney is "present in nearly every scene, in a dual role that tests his skill to no small degree."[21] The review highlighted that this subdues Chaney's prominence and allows the plot to be better communicated, but it also causes the film to "not rank among his best productions."[21]
A review by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle noted: "It is pleasant to report also that there is none of the usual stupid comedy relief in London After Midnight to mar its sinister and creepy scheme. That ought to make it the outstanding mystery film of the year."[12] It however found fault in Tod Browning's direction because the film's atmosphere did not recapture "the intensely weird effect" found in The Cat and the Canary.[12]
Variety wrote that "Young, Browning and Chaney have made a good combination in the past but the story on which this production is based is not of the quality that results in broken house records, adding that, since Burke was "a detached character, mechanical and wooden", he failed to meaningfully connect with the audience.[22]
The New Yorker also wrote that the "directing, acting and settings are all well up to the idea," but "it strives too hard to create effect. Mr. Browning can create pictorial terrors and Lon Chaney can get himself up in a completely repulsive manner, but both their efforts are wasted when the story makes no sense."[23]
Film historian William K. Everson, who viewed the film in the early 1950s, called it "routine"[20] and inferior to the 1935 remake Mark of the Vampire.
Reconstruction
In 2002, Turner Classic Movies commissioned restoration producer Rick Schmidlin to produce a 45-minute reconstruction of the film, using still photographs.[7] The following year, the reconstructed version was released as a part of The Lon Chaney Collection DVD set released by the TCM Archives.
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