TCM's reconstruction of "London After Midnight"--DVD release? (1 Viewer)

[Jim Peavy]

The title says it all. I missed this on Halloween night; I don't have cable and my friend who has a satelitte dish missed it.

Anybody got any news?

 

[Patrick McCart]

Nothing yet, but I think it would be a good idea for WB/TCM to do a Lon Chaney silents box set with He Who Gets Slapped, The Unknown, The Unholy Three (1925), its 1930 remake (with both endings), Tell It To The Marines, West of Zanzibar, Mr. Wu, and the LAM reconstruction.

 

[GaryEA]

Unfortunately, I missed the airing as well.

Patrick's idea for a Chaney box set would be an instant sale for me.

-g

 

[Jeff_HR]

I'd love to see some Chaney on DVD. But I'd pass on the "London After Midnight" still thing. I would want the real film, not a still collection. But that is impossible as this film is no more.

 

[Patrick McCart]

I'd love to see some Chaney on DVD. But I'd pass on the "London After Midnight" still thing. I would want the real film, not a still collection. But that is impossible as this film is no more.

Ya never know...

The Unknown was lost for many years until a French archive found a print of it. They had hundreds of film cans marked "unknown" (in french) and it turned out that among them was an original nitrate print of the film.

I'm hoping that if someone or some archive somewhere finds the film thanks to the TCM reconstruction...they do so quickly. There's always a chance that some archive or collector out there decides to look at whatever unmarked stuff they have after seeing the program.

 

[Henry V]

Hey Patrick,add Lon Chaney's "The Monster" (1925) to that list of a dream Chaney box set,it's played on TCM before so it's available.They seem to have inserted every haunted house sliding panel cliche they could into this one but it's still good fun.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Since the similar TCM reconstruction of Greed hasn't made its way to disc (heck, the film proper hasn't either), I don't see much likelihood of LAM in the near future. It was pretty well done, though.

 

[Jim Peavy]

Actually, Forrest J. Ackerman came out with a couple Lon Chaney "stillistrated" (as he called them) books years ago. One was a general book on all of Chaney's films, except LAM. The reason for it's exclusion was he came out with another book that contained every still he had of LAM (which, knowing his collection, has to be pretty close to all of them). It was an attempt to recreate the film in book form.
I have the book on all of Chaney's films, but not the one on LAM:frowning:. God knows what it's going for on the collector's market...

 

[Steve Phillips]

The 40 min LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT still presentation was interesting. It would make a nice extra in a Chaney set, I agree, or as an extra on a DVD release of MARK OF THE VAMPIRE.

TCM is probaby the only place we'll see this for a while, though, as the studios aren't exactlly rushing to put hte silents out on DVD.

 

[Jeff_HR]

Ya never know...

I would be wonderful Patrick, if by a miracle it was rediscovered, but I won't hold my breath.

 

[Jim Peavy]

Indeed, ya' never know...
My favorite "finding of a lost film" story is when they found the (only?) print of Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc--in a Norwegian mental institution!

 

[Patrick McCart]

I would be wonderful Patrick, if by a miracle it was rediscovered, but I won't hold my breath.

Oh yeah...I'm 99.999999% sure the film is lost into oblivion...but there are always surprises.

However...The Unknown was a much better find...LAM has been said to be pretty lame even by silent cinema buffs while The Unknown is likely Chaney's best MGM film.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

According to Chaney biographer Michael Blake there isn't a single lead to a print of LAM anywhere in the world, and many archives have been scoured looking for it. That's not to say that a print couldn't turn up, but it seems very unlikely.

 

[GaryEA]

Because I missed the TCM airing, I've resorted to pulling out my copy of Philip J. Riley's London After Midnight (1985, Cornwall Books).
Riley, who used to work for Forrest J. Ackerman as a "film archaeologist", writes about the production, from beginning to premiere. He offers the entire script for "The Hypnotist", presents a lot of production and publicity material, and finishes by "reconstructing" the film using stills and mock title cards (much like the TCM presentation).
I like this book as it's the only window into the film I have, and Forrey's foreward is priceless.
-g
EDITED