Adaptation & source material

The original. I mean, that did happen quite a lot. Usually, MGM, when they did Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1941, bought up the Fredric March earlier version and essentially buried it for a couple of decades. Here, they didn't even have to buy up the earlier version. Okay, so Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made London After Midnight anyway, so they already owned the rights. And there's no sense... In 1935, silent movies must have seemed so old that there would be no commercial value in them ever.

1:08 · jump to transcript →

So, I mean, I think it's interesting how they're almost like leapfrogging each other at this point. Yeah, and this is obviously MGM's shot at Dracula. I mean, it's... In all but name. In all but name. I mean, they try and get as many things back. I mean, there are elements from Dracula just tipped back in. But it may be that London After Midnight was originally conceived as an attempt to basically do Dracula without buying the rights to the stage play from Hamilton Deane. So there are elements from the play that are in...

7:26 · jump to transcript →

Well, I mean, the interesting thing also, as you know, is that in the original London After Midnight, of course, Chaney played the dual role of both the police inspector and the vampire haunting the Moors. Whereas when it came to this version, the role was split into three, between three actors, between Lionel Barrymore, Lionel Atwill and Bela Lugosi. So it's almost like it took three actors to step into Lon Chaney's senior's shoes, as it were. Yeah, it is even actually, it's even more complicated than that because there is a mystery second actor who in

8:06 · jump to transcript →