London After Midnight

Sometimes I work movies into Zodiac Monday and Ripper Wednesday.

I really appreciated the one for London After Midnight, although I'm just going to say very flat out, very clearly, London After Midnight was shared on YouTube in a way that I have never seen a movie before.

And I might do something about that because that's more of a Jack the Ripper related one that actually starred the wonderful late Lon Chaney.

London After Midnight, Batman66, thank you so much for sharing.

And our next one is River Prawn Pottery.

River Prawn Pottery is another regular and consistent supporter.

the last stop in yuma county i can't remember what the title is

anyway but yeah so regarding the babadook the demon itself which looks a little bit like lon chaney senior lon chaney jr he was in the wolf man um You know, the Babadook looks a lot like Lon Chaney Sr. from London After Midnight, which is this famous lost silent movie that Lon Chaney Sr. was in.

And there's images of him in that film, but that film, the full film is completely lost.

But yeah, the demon itself, the Babadook, is a representation or... a manifestation of suppressed and on pro an on pro an unprocessed grief and unresolved trauma the monster feeds off the trauma and despair of essie davis's character amelia who is struggling to raise her troubled son after losing her husband six years before on the day they were driving to the hospital to so amelia could give birth to her son samuel her husband oscar was driving the car and they had a car accident and he died so yeah the movie deals with loss and trauma plus maternal rage and parental exhaustion.

and so on that was my like kind of favorite part i think

okay interesting you mentioned the babadook there which just made that connection for me for london after midnight the vampire maker yes was clearly an inspiration for the babadook

we came across that sort of as we we sort of read around the topic a little bit more as as things went on and um Yeah, amazing, really.

And when you see the two pictures side by side, it's incredible, isn't it?

Okay.

So on the strength of that, Rowan, would you watch any other James Cagney films?

After watching that, I think Phantom of the Opera and London After Midnight, they're my two that I'm more intrigued to.

Wow.

He reminds me of like just a character they would put in one of those like, not Faust, but like those like old 1920s, 30s like horror movies where it'd just be like a guy like pulling a wagon.

What's the thing? Is it London After Midnight?

Yeah, yeah.

Like what's that guy's

So maybe you're saying we

shouldn't discover London After Midnight or something, just in case.

Just

in case.

In 1929 though, Leni died of blood poisoning and Laemmle quickly hired Tod Browning in his place.

Browning had been a solidly reliable director throughout the 1920s, dipping his toe into the horror genre a few times with The Unholy Three, The Unknown, and London After Midnight, all starring Lon Chaney, Browning's favorite actor and close friend.

However, with the arrival of talkies, Browning ironically had struggled to find his voice.

Knowing that if anyone could secure the services of Lon Chaney in the title role of Dracula, then it was Tod Browning, Laemmle Jr. handed him the director's seat.

There's a big Exorcist reference at the end and stuff in The Babadook.

Along, uh, London After Midnight, the long lost 1927 Lon Chaney film.

The Babadook monster man himself is very similar looking to Lon Chaney in that, although no one...

I, I've seen stills just 'cause it's, it's a lost film.

So I, I thought...

I mean, you can't review something that didn't happen, but I thought that was the route they were gonna go down.

And I think if that, if it had've been left open to interpretate- interpretation, that maybe it was ghost dad out for revenge that caused all of this instead of cartoon London After Midnight.

Now, I figured out why the Babadook doesn't die.

Now that you've seen the show, we will get to the talk of the day.

Yes, in 1935, Mark of the Vampire was unleashed to the film-going public, and would serve as an easy way of reviving the plot of London After Midnight for the talkie era.

Nowadays, given the lost status of London After Midnight, the film is an ingredient of sorts in talking about the subject of its silent predecessor.

But how does this film stand on its own? What horror elements does it innovate, and how do we feel about it in the overall Browning canon? To answer that, we need the help of a prior guest, and a Ballyboo legend, if you will, whose investigative prowess helped us solve mysteries of the floral nature on Skid Row, and sociopathic capers in Sa- St.

Louis.

They make, uh, they make, uh, Mina and Jonathan Harker in Browning's Dracula look supremely interesting.

[laughs]

They ma- they, they comparative... 'Cause it, it, one thing about this film, which it doesn't surprise me that you kinda had the reaction that you did in it on, on this flick 'cause there's a lot of cool stuff in here, but there is also a lot of rehash of Dracula on top of the London After Midnight thing.

Right.

Like London After Midnight, after the engine fire.

Yeah.

Gone.