Horror movie, released in 1927. It was directed by
Tod Browning and written by Browning and
Waldemar Young (based on an original story by Browning called "
The Hypnotist"). It starred
Lon Chaney, Sr. (as Burke),
Marceline Day,
Henry B. Walthall,
Percy Williams,
Conrad Nagel,
Polly Moran,
Edna Tichenor (as Luna the Bat Girl), and
Claude King.
This
silent movie is probably the best known of the "
lost films" -- as far as anyone knows, no copies of this
movie exist anywhere.
On
Halloween 2002,
Turner Classic Movies aired a reconstructed version of this movie -- instead of moving pictures, the
reconstruction consisted entirely of
still photographs.
Filmmaker and
archivist Rick Schmidlin collected over 200 still photos and, using the film's original
continuity script, rebuilt what was left into a complete
narrative. Composer
Robert Israel added a new film
score to finish the picture. While it would be a mistake to claim that the reconstructed film makes for a particularly
scary movie, it is an important
historical record, and it's interesting to see
glimpses of what the original film might have been like.
The plot is a bit convoluted: the death of wealthy
Roger Balfour is ruled a
suicide by
Scotland Yard's Inspector Burke, but Balfour's
executor, Sir James Hamlin, insists that he wasn't suicide-prone. Five years later, two new
lodgers arrive at the abandoned Balfour
mansion: an
evil-looking man with
pointy teeth, bulging eyes, and a
tall hat, and a
pale young woman in a long
gown. Hamlin suspects they had something to do with Balfour's death and calls Inspector Burke back in; Burke thinks there's nothing wrong, but then Balfour's body
disappears from his
crypt, the
fanged stranger menaces a maid, Balfour apparently takes a walk around his old house, and Balfour's nephew becomes convinced that the new tenants are
vampires. Balfour's daughter is
kidnapped by the vampire and taken to the Balfour mansion; when Hamlin tries to help, the vampire
hypnotizes him.
In the end, it all turns out to be an
elaborate ruse. The vampire was really Inspector Burke in
disguise, the pale woman in the gown was an
actress, and the
maid was an assistant
detective. Hamlin reveals, under
hypnosis, that he
murdered Balfour and made the
death look like a suicide; he was angry because Balfour told Hamlin he would not let him marry his daughter.
Justice is served, and the daughter and the nephew get married. Huzzah!
Best
trivia bit: Chaney wore a set of false
animal teeth for his vampire scenes. He was only able to wear them for a few minutes at a time because they were so
painful.
Research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) and from seeing the film back in '27 at -- Oh God, I've said too much! (/me turns into a bat and flies away)