|
London After Midnight (USA 1927,Dir.Tod Browning,Screenplay.Tod Browning
&
Waldemar Young,,Film Co.MGM,
Cast.Lon Chaney,Henry B.
Walthall,Marceline Day,Edna Tichenor,
Conrad Nagel,Polly Moran,note.lost
film, no copies known to exist)
Directed by
Tod Browning
Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Tod Browning story The Hypnotist
Joseph Farnham titles
Waldemar Young
Cast (in credits order) complete, awaiting verification
Lon Chaney .... Burke
Marceline Day .... Lucille Balfor
Henry B. Walthall .... Sir.James Hamlin
Percy Williams .... Butler
Conrad Nagel .... Arthur Hibbs
Polly Moran .... Miss Smithson
Edna Tichenor .... Luna, Bat Girl
Claude King .... Roger Balfour
Jules Cowles .... Gallagher
rest of cast listed alphabetically
Allan Cavan .... Real Estate Broker
Andy MacLennan .... Bat Girl's Assistant
Produced by
Rick Schmidlin .... reconstruction producer (2002)
Irving Thalberg .... producer (uncredited)
Cinematography by
Merritt B. Gerstad
Film Editing by
Harry Reynolds
Errol Taggart
Art Department
Cedric Gibbons .... sets
A. Arnold Gillespie .... sets
Other crew
Lucia Coulter .... wardrober
When Roger Balfour is found shot dead in his London home, his death is declared
a suicide by Inspector Burke of Scotland Yard, even though the executor of
Balfour's estate, Sir James Hamlin, insists his friend never would have taken
his own life. Five years later, the abandoned Balfour house comes to life
again with the arrival of two sinister-looking tenants: a fiendish-looking
man with pointed teeth, bulging eyes and a tall beaver hat, and a pale young
woman in a long gown. The presence of the strangers prompts Sir James, who
lives next door, to call in Inspector Burke again. Also living in the Hamlin
household are the other people who were also present in Balfour's house the
night he died: Sir James' nephew, Arthur Hibbs; the late Balfour's now-grown
daughter, Lucille; and Williams, the butler. Burke expresses skepticism about
Sir James' suspicions that the new neighbors might have been involved in
Balfour's death, until strange things start happening: Balfour's body disappears
from its tomb. The new maid, Smithson, tells a terrifying tale of being menaced
in Lucille's bedroom by the stranger in the beaver hat. And a man spotted
inside the Balfour house by Burke and Sir James looks distinctly like the
late Roger Balfour. A skittish Arthur becomes convinced the neighbors are
vampires. Burke takes Lucille aside, and tells her he doesn't believe her
father committed suicide. He asks her to trust him. Burke also has a private
talk with Arthur. Burke uses hypnosis to put Arthur into a trance, but learns
nothing new about Balfour's death. That night, someone fires a shot into
Arthur's room, but Arthur isn't there; instead, it's Burke who's slightly
wounded. Lucille is abducted by the beaver-hatted man and the butler and
brought to her former home. Sir James, acting at Burke's instruction, also
shows up at the Balfour house; he's met out front by the beaver-hatted man,
who puts him into a hypnotic trance. Arthur breaks into the Balfour house
in an attempt to rescue Lucille; he's caught by Burke and a couple of detectives
and locked away. It turns out the man with the beaver hat and pointed teeth
was really a disguised Inspector Burke, who was aided at times by a double;
Smithson, the maid, is an assistant detective; the mysterious young woman,
a stage performer working for the police. Under Burke's hypnosis, Sir James
re-creates his actions the night Roger Balfour died, with Lucille and the
butler, Williams, playing themselves, and Burke's double playing the part
of Balfour. It turns out Sir James shot and killed Balfour and made the death
appear a suicide after Balfour rejected Sir James as a future husband for
young Lucille. Sir James is brought out of his trance and arrested by Burke.
The mystery of Balfour's death solved, Lucille and Arthur, who have come
to realize how much they love each other, are now free to marry.
|