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(via AICN) This is an interesting story and one that I hope is true. It broke, more or less, on the Horror Drunx website today, in a post by “Sid Terror” and tells the hugely-detailed and highly entertaining tale of his stumbling upon a print of this long-lost Tod Browning-Lon Chaney classic in a Hollywood vault back in the late 80’s, fully intact and in good condition.

What happens after this and why isn’t this restored film sitting on my DVD shelf right now? Well, I won’t spoil the rest of the story for you. The original post can be found here.

Basically, what Sid Terror is asking, is that the word now be gotten out that this film still exists, somewhere, and that the studio powers-that-be need to get their heads off their golf games for a few minutes and send an intern down to the vault to find it.

The 1927 film, which starred Lon Chaney, in one of his last, great roles, was directed by Tod Browning, who would later come to great acclaim with “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi, and, of course, the notorious, “Freaks”. Browning remade “London After Midnight” as “Mark of the Vampire” (also with Lugosi) in 1935, which remains one of my favorite films. But “London After Midnight”, which was pulled from distribution shortly after “talkies” came in, has remained an elusive treasure to film buffs in the years since then. A series of stills is all that was previously thought to have remained of the classic (which, several years ago, was assembled into a 45-minute “Ken Burns version” broadcast on TCM). It’s through these stills, that many a time graced the pages for Forrest J Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland (and made the cover more than once), that rabid horror fans like myself came to know the film, and Chaney’s iconic vampire.

A great amount of suspicion has been thrown up in the wake of this story, namely due to the fact that Sid had the film in his hands, put it back on a shelf and walked away, only to mention it now, many, many years later. However, Harry, over at Ain’t It Cool News is sort of vouching for what Sid’s saying, and, I have to say, myself, reading the account, it does smack of the sincerity of both a classic film fan and a fellow Famous Monsters of Filmland addict.

I’m sure that the miniature readership of this blog won’t amount to much more than a hill of beans in the end, but, check out the story, and if there’s any way you can pass it on to someone “in the know”, please do so (and if this turns out to be yet another internet hoax, I’m gonna be soooo pissed).

UPDATE 7/25/08: You know, after having had nearly 24 hours to think about it, I’m going to have to call bullshit on this one. Without even trying to figure out what the true intentions of the original poster could possibly be, some inconsistencies (that have been pointed out on several ‘boards around the net) are hard to ignore, plus my own gut feeling, having put myself in the position of the teller of the tale, the simple fact remains: why keep quiet about it all these years? Sid (the OP) says that he assumed that wheels were in motion to have the film transferred to safe stock because this was the main purpose of the facility where he allegedly found the print. He says that he went back to the main office and just told his contact there to make a notation in the database of the full title (”The Hypnotist (UK title) A.K.A. London After Midnight”). When asked why she should do this, he merely said “trust me”, or words to that effect. I think any normal-thinking person would say, “… because that’s one of the most sought films in cinema history”, and then each and every visit to the facility after that, I’d ask what the status was.

If nothing else, being the film fan that Sid says he is, having apparent unhindered access to the facility and seemingly no problem accessing the print in the first place, why the hell not take a picture? I’m not saying potentially harm the film by crudely scanning frames or anything, but, heck, set the auto-timer and get a snap of yourself holding those precious cans!

Were there no cameras in 1988?

Then there’s the internet. Sure, having a website was a big deal early on, but for the last few years any idiot can have a MySpace page, why wait until shortly after missing footage from “Metropolis” is discovered to share the story on a message board with your monster movie friends?

The icing on the cake is how the OP disappeared on vacation very shortly after posting. A little too convenient a way to avoid answering a whole lot of immediate questions. Take some time, mull them over and issue a statement with more made-up stuff supporting your story. Horror Drunx seems to be supporting the poster with the oft-repeated phrase, “Prove us wrong”, which I;ve heard a lot from Bigfoot and UFO people and it doesn’t make their claims any more real.

I still hope the story’s true and the print is found tomorrow, but, that old man in my gut is saying “not this time”. I really don’t know what it is inside someone who craves attention so much that they fabricate something this elaborate and send people spinning their wheels. I really don’t understand.

UPDATE 7/30/08: Wow, this thing really imploded in on itself in a way I haven’t seen in a long time. Over on the Horror Drunx site, the admins started deleting and re-writing (re-wording) posts that in any way called into question so-called facts of the story, or even questioned some of the story’s details. That pretty much seals the deal for me, frankly.

So what happened? I think, falling so closely on the heels of similar discoveries recently (”A Night at the Opera”, “Metropolis”), a certain sense of validity fell to the title of the original post, which was, “London After Midnight - Lost Classic Found!” — wishful thinking, to be sure, but something that couldn’t be further from the truth, as it turns out. Maybe we all need this kind of story in the middle of the summer, who knows.

Anyway, you can read some back and forth and all the nauseating blow-by-blow details on the Classic Horror Film Board.

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