Underplayed Gems

London After Midnight (1927)

London After Midnight poster
Directed by
Tod Browning
Genre
drama film, silent film, horror film, mystery film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 05m
Rating
6.6 of 10 from 31 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A police inspector investigates a suspicious death in a foggy London mansion. The case involves strange happenings and a pale, cloaked figure with sharp teeth.

mysteriouseerieatmosphericgothicsilent-eraspookyclassicalmelodramatic

What happens

London After Midnight (original working title: The Hypnotist) is a lost 1927 American silent mystery horror film directed and co-produced by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney, with Marceline Day, Conrad Nagel, Henry B. Walthall, and Polly Moran. The film was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was written by Waldemar Young, based on the story "The Hypnotist" which was written by Browning. Merritt B. Gerstad was the cinematographer, and the sets were designed by Cedric Gibbons and Arnold Gillespie. Harry Sharrock was the assistant director. The film cost $152,000 to produce and grossed $1 million (equivalent to $19,000,000 in 2025). Chaney's real-life make-up case can be seen in the last scene of the film sitting on a table, the only time it ever appeared in a film. The last known copy of the film was destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire, making it one of the most sought-after lost silent films. In 2002, Turner Classic Movies aired a reconstructed version, produced by Rick Schmidlin, using the original script and numerous film stills to recreate the original plot. Browning remade the film as a sound film in 1935, as Mark of the Vampire, starring Bela Lugosi. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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