London After Midnight (1927)

It's possible to "view" London After Midnight, the most successful (in box-office terms) collaboration between director Tod Browning and actor Lon Chaney, in only one form, a "photographic reconstruction" by Rick Schmidlin, who was also responsible for the reconstruction of Erich Von Stroheim's legendary Greed. The difference here is that no motion picture elements still exist; the last known print was lost in a fire in the mid-1960s. Despite the loss of many hours of footage from Greed, the core action remains available on film. Schmidlin assembled stills and added a musical score by Robert Israel, using a shooting script to recreate the intertitles. It's a heroic effort, but the effect of the film is severely blunted by the lack of motion. Although Schmidlin does try to compensate for movement by panning across or zooming in on the stills, the story never really comes to life. It's missing not only the actors' movements but the sense of atmosphere that creative cinematography and production design can provide. Chaney's makeup as the vampire is as always fascinating, but because of the limitations of the plot, he isn't given much to do; he's more an apparition than a flesh-and-blood ghoul. This version, which premiered on Turner Classic Movies in 2002, clocks in at 48 min., considerably shorter than the film's original running time. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide