I was guided to Daniel Titley's book, London After Midnight: The Lost Film, by director/producer/writer Ansel H. Faraj, after praising his haunting short, "Watching After Midnight" (see early October post), which he cowrote with the former.
Titley's Keyreads, coffee-table edition is an amazing and impassioned accomplishment, in which the meticulous author tackles multiple aspects of Tod Browning/Lon Chaney Sr.'s missing, MGM silent opus.
I, like so many who've yearned to view the 1927 submission, have only experienced the TCM still-compilation/restoration of what-may-have-been, as well as Browning's classic, MGM 1935 remake, Mark of the Vampire (starring Bela Lugosi and Lionel Barrymore), but as appreciated and helpful as the productions are, they're not the veritable, Browning/Chaney creation.
Titley acknowledges this, and in so doing, paints a painstaking perspective on what existed, looking back to such inspirations as Browning's short story, "The Hypnotist" (presented in whole), as well as the drafts that shaped the film's final form (with genuine content shared).
Along the way, Titley reveals authentic, London After Midnight, nitrate clips and examples of the film's prolific promotion, the results of which can be enjoyed through archival posters, lobby cards, stills, reviews and newspaper advertisements.
The author also caters to London After Midnight's social impact. For the latter, Titley includes a section on a famous, Hyde Park case, in which a chap named Robert Williams murdered a housemaid-waitress, Julia Mangan, and then blamed Chaney's "vampiric" Man in the Beaver Hat for spurring the deed. Titley's scholarly detailing of the event is as enthralling as any quality, murder-mystery novel, and if I may be so bold, a film or play adaptation based on the case would be worth pursuing.
In addition, Titley delves into the 1965 MGM, Culver City fire that destroyed the movie's alleged, only print: an account that's as heartbreaking as it's informative, regarding not only London After Midnight, but other lost gems.
Even if a print of London After Midnight should someday surface, Titley's 452-page exploration would remain relevant, for its pages brim of the fervor and lament that one might associate with unrequited love. It is, therefore, an emotional work of art in its own valid right.
For any Browning, Chaney or general, cinema buff, London After Midnight: The Lost Film is an essential, encyclopedic triumph that must be owned and to which one will return time and again.
Titley's towering achievement can be purchased in hardback and paperback at
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1399942549?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
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