LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT is out there... somewhere!

By Matt Holmes /

The whole cinematic landscape has changed forever in the last few months, regarding our view to cinema's past and films (or parts of films) which we previously thought had been lost have since been found. Most explicitly earlier this month when lost footage from Metropolis, thought to have been seen for the last time eight decades ago were sensationally found and are to be restored back into the film for a Blu-Ray DVD release next year. How exciting is that? But nothing quite compares to this discovery. If this is true, this is one of the biggest topics I have ever in my life had the pleasure of discussing to fellow film fans. It would appear London After Midnight featuring that notorious performance from a heavy made up Lon Chaney Sr, allegedly, has been found only to be then lost again!

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That's according to Sid Terror, who wrote this message via his website The Horror Drunx. Real or a fake story to get some cheap hits? Here's what he said...
Yes. It is true. For those who scoff and doubt (I'm sure you will be legion) that the most notorious lost film of all times was located, I will say it again with authority and conviction... I, Sid Terror, saw Lon Chaney's lost classic LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT with my own eyes. Without a doubt. No I am not talking about a recreation made completely from still photos, I'm talking about the entire long-lost motion-picture!
IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, THEN YOU REALLY SHOULD READ THIS! Though here is the gist of things, in a narrative worthy of a great fiction novel (yeah, even if it's not true I dug the hell out of reading this)...
One place that I visited often was a massive film storage facility located on the border of Culver City and Inglewood, which was a part of Turner after their buy-out of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film catalog. Specifically, so there are no questions from you doubting Thomas' later, the address is: Turner Entertainment Company, 5890 W. JEFFERSON BLVD,, LOS ANGELES, CA 90016. The facility was later also known to some as Bonded Film Storage. This building was massive and hulking. Larger than a football field. Larger than the box Disneyland came in. Remember the warehouse at the end of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK? Well, if that warehouse and the one in CITIZEN KANE were put together, they could comfortably be stored in a corner of the back room of this one. I am dead serious. You can imagine treasures being lost in there for decades. The truth is, who knows how many treasures actually have been? Often, the films I would pick up and deliver there would be of the endangered nitrate film stock variety... rare and usually one-of-a-kind, last-existing-print-on-the-planet treasures. I can tell you, there was positively NO SMOKING in my van during those trips. Usually I would pick up those prints and negatives from one of the offices, sign them out, then transport them directly to one of a handful of film labs that specialized in restoration and transfer of nitrate prints to new safety film so that they could be preserved for posterity. Not a job that I took lightly at all. Being a likable guy and not a bad conversationalist, I made a lot of friends on this job. Often, they would request me specifically (our company had several drivers) just to say hi and maybe have a chat. The people at Turner were no exception. One friend I made there was a woman named Rosalind DeWitt. I'd worked with her ex-husband Bob and his brother Dewey on a couple of films years earlier. Probably the best known being the Bette Midler film THE ROSE, on which I'd been lucky enough to work with legendary cinematographer (and multi Academy Award winner) Vilmos Zigmond as an apprentice assistant. Every time I'd pass Rosalind's desk, I'd always eyeball the picture of her beautiful daughter Laura and jokingly say the same thing :::wolf whistle::: "Wow, who is the babe?" To which the answer from Ros was always the same, a giggling "Oh, hush! She is my daughter and she is too young for you!". Laura had grown up surrounded by the motion-picture industry, visiting her father on film sets and when her mother worked at MGM, Laura would often pass the time roller skating in the massive basement of the infamous Thalberg Building. Later, I would meet her daughter Laura completely randomly at - ah, but I'm getting ahead of the story. There were many long conversations I'd have with Rosalind while waiting to pick up a film print. During one of these visits, I asked the magic question... "Could you check something in the database for me? Look up the title LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT and see what you find." "Sure" Rosalind replied and she did it. Gee, it was just that easy, huh? I got my answer on a return visit the next day, however the answer was as expected: "The database files don't show any assets for that title being stored here". Oh, well... another dead end. There had been many, there would probably be many more. But I just couldn't shake the nagging hunch. The next time I visited, I came prepared, bringing a list of every known international and alternate title for the film. She said she would look those up for me too, but it might take a few days. "No problem", said I. "It's been over 60 years, what's a couple more days?". Less than a week later, my rounds brought me back to the Turner / Jefferson vaults, this time delivering some films recently transferred to video. I'd stopped to see Ros on the way. "Hey, I turned up some assets on one of the titles you gave me," she said. I stopped dead in my tracks. "Which one?" "THE HYPNOTIST" she replied. "And the print is being stored at Jefferson." My heart skipped a beat, maybe even three or four. THE HYPNOTIST was the alternate British title for LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT!!! "Where is it?!" I stammered. THE END OF THE RAINBOW Rosalind wrote down the information for me, section, row, and shelf number. Then she added, "There seems to be a problem though. Apparently the print is incomplete. They want to do something with it as far as some kind of release, but the only hold-up is a reel or a part of a reel is missing". No matter. I had to see it for myself. Minutes later, I was staring at the film cans. In bold Magic Marker the words THE HYPNOTIST looked back at me from the hexagon-shaped shipping containers. I was sweating...this was epic...but I had to be sure. I slipped away the tag clasp and opened the container, smelling the light scent a true film fanatic dreams about. NITRATE. I donned my white cotton gloves and pulled the first reel from the container. First making sure the film was not too brittle, I unspooled the first ten to fifteen feet, carefully looping them by hand, then pulled a film magnifying loop (one of the tools of the trade) from my vest pocket. I looked through the eyepiece and looking back at me was the title card... "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents... A Tod Browning production of... LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT... Starring Lon Chaney." I gasped aloud. "Oh...my...God". image TITLE CARD: A recreation of the original title card credits This was more than gold in my hand. This was more than platinum, or titanium. This was the Holy Grail. Honestly-- and I'm a big enough man to admit this-- my eyes pooled and I may have even wept a little. I fought the urge to look further ahead in the film reel. This was, after all, precious, fragile film stock. But I did check every other reel in those cans at the roll ends and I can be positive what I saw. At one reel change (I believe it was the beginning of Reel Three), Lon Chaney as the beaver-hatted vampire looked back at me. It chilled my blood in the same way it did when I first saw that face on the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland as a child..
Only the film was then to be lost again and two decades later, he is attempting to start a campaign to find "The Hypnotist" the alternative British title for the legendary film which was labelled on the misplaced print. Having grown up reading about this legendary performance of Lon Chaney Sr, if this could in anyway be possibly true... it would really be like finding The Holy Grail. I could imagine finding nothing as big as this for cinema history. We shall keep you updated on this. source - aicn