HAS PRINT OF RARE LON CHANEY HORROR ‘LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT’ FINALLY BEEN FOUND?

“The abandoned home of a wealthy man who supposedly committed suicide five years earlier is taken over by ghoulish figures – could they be vampires?”

Everyone here on HCF knows how much I like the old stuff, so I doubt that nobody is surpised to hear that for a few minutes I was very excited indeed….if only for a few minutes!

Many horror fans are familiar with the images of Lon Chaney as The Hypnotist from the 1927 film London After Midnight. Featuring the star of the original versions of The Phantom Of The Opera and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, directed by Tod Browning of Dracula and Freaks fame, and actually remade by Browning in 1935 as The Mark Of The Vampire starring Bela Lugosi himself, it’s a film that so many of us have been gagging to see for ages. However, the film is said to be lost, probably having perished in an MGM studio fire in 1967 that destroyed a great many important films.

Every now and again though, we here rumours that a print may exist, and the other day Tales From The Crypt/Agents Of SHIELD producer Robert Parigi shared this on his official Facebook page:

“I’m noticing chatter that a 7-reel print of long-lost Tod Browning/Lon Chaney film LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (featuring Chaney’s iconic “Man in the Beaver Hat” Vampire) has been discovered in Spain! I had long heard rumors of a print in Cuba. Is this perhaps that print, now sent to Spain? 20 years ago, I heard rumors of a print in the U.S., and contacted the supposed owner offering to transfer it to (then state-of-the-art) D1, but when it came time to produce the print he backed out.”

However, we haven’t had any confirmation that this print has been found, and some are claiming the story to be a fake which made my heart sink. Anyway, I’ll post more on this subject as soon as I hear it!