If you could destroy one classic, and bring back a lost one?

[ClassicHorror]

If you had to destroy a classic horror film, to bring back a lost one, what would you pick.
I'd destroy Phantom From 10,000 Leagues, to bring back The Devils Castle.

[I,ZOMBIE]

i would destroy gone with the wind and bring back the rest of metropolis. i know they're not horror, but that would be my course of action.

[jedicow]

i would destroy the spanish version of dracula and bring back london after midnight.

[filmmaker2]

I would destroy Tod Slaughter's "Demon Barber of Fleet Street" and bring back "London After Midnight."

[gordytheghoul]

I would destroy any of the lame Universal monster sequels (or even better an Abott & Costello turd) to bring back a restord to it's original running time version of FREAKS.

I'd trade another A&C dud for LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.:)

[Tat2]

Originally posted by jedicow
i would destroy the spanish version of dracula and bring back london after midnight.


DAMN!!!!! Exactly what I was going to do! How weird!

[jedicow]

Originally posted by gordytheghoul
I would destroy any of the lame Universal monster sequels (or even better an Abott & Costello turd) to bring back a restord to it's original running time version of FREAKS.

I'd trade another A&C dud for LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.:)

how can you even think of destroying ANY of the universal movies? i wouldnt get rid of the A&C flicks either.

[ClassicHorror]

why not destroy something stupid instead of a&c, and universal films? lol

[urgeok]

if its a lost classic .. how the hell do you know its any good ?!! who's seen it ?

and how many lost classics are there ? someone have a list ?

[iamragmar]

Before any of you think I dont like Night of the Living Dead, I will say I love it but I would go as far to destroy it to bring back London After Midnight.
I hear London After Midnight was pretty crap apart from Chaney, but the extent that Chaney was great, is that I think he looks better in that film than anyone to be in any film ever, ever, EVER!!!
I would go as far to say that seeing pictures of Chaney in that film is one of the best things in my life.
Has anyone got the semi-restored screenshots version of the film? What is it like?

[filmmaker2]

Destroy "Night of the Living Dead?????" Oh no! Oh no! Nooooooooo!

Well, all right.

[lilknivesguy]

Originally posted by urgeok
...how many lost classics are there ? someone have a list ?

I guess we first have to define what is meant by "lost"? If the film had been made, and the prints are extant (like NOSFERATU was for many years and only presumed lost for good), that's one category. But then there are those films that were never made, but planned (like the legendary Hammer "lost projects").

If we stick to what we presume are "lost" but extant works, there aren't that many. Edison's 1910 version of FRANKENSTEIN (in its entirety) would be interesting to see.

The aforementioned LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT tops my list as it apparently does so many folks here in this thread. What's funny, though, is that one Chaney expert thinks LONDON would have been "a stinker." See

http://www.filmthreat.com/Features.asp?File=FeaturesOne.inc&Id=195

Don't mean to take us off-topic, but it's an interesting article if you're a Chaney fan.

[ClassicHorror]

Lost: Un-findable.

That question is impossible to answer.

[lilknivesguy]

Well, then, OK. Un-findable makes for a short thread, and a bit of a paradoxical exercise, but we can revisit your suggestion of Devil's Castle, by which I assume you mean Melies' Le Manoir du Diable from 1896. Two to three minutes of all manner (manor? manoir?) of mephistophelian mayhem, from bats to cauldrons to cavaliers with crosses.

There are a few seconds of it in Real Player at http://www.mshepley.btinternet.co.uk/melies2.htm (click on the camera icon at end of paragraph about the film)

But yeah, no one has found the entire thing (or no French archive has coughed it up). So we can agree on
Le Manoir du Diable (1896)
Frankenstein (1910) and
London After Midnight (1927)? Any others?

I'll still hold out for Frankenstein. Which really isn't "un-findable" (see http://www.filmthreat.com/Features.asp?File=FeaturesOne.inc&Id=284 ). Nothing is truly "un-findable" unless it never existed in th first place. There's always a private collector or museum archive somewhere that seems to surface. And then the legal entanglements ensue.

As to what "classic" should topple and be supplanted by the new find? I never much thought Creature from the Black Lagoon deserved the same stature as the other "classic" monsters.

[iamragmar]

I'm pretty sure there was a thin book all about lost horror films, it had a beautiful painted cover of London After Midnight(a close up of chaney), it was about £10, I kick myself now for not buying it, but I was not that heavily interested in horror films as I am now, to be honest, most of the films didn't look very interesting.

[HollywoodGoth]

This is easy.

DESTROY: NOSFERATU
RESURRECT: LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT

[Doc Faustus]

Destroy: Rosemary's Baby
Bring Back: Der Januskopf

[Marya Zaleska]

I would get rid of Monster From The Surf and bring back London After Midnight with Lon Chaney, Senior

[DEATHH DREAMS author]

Netflix doesn't have either London After Midnight or The Devil's Castle...bummer...

I would destroy the original Frankenstein and bring back Lady Frankenstein.

[Roderick Usher]

Netflix doesn't have either London After Midnight or The Devil's Castle...bummer...

I would destroy the original Frankenstein and bring back Lady Frankenstein.

IT DOES!!!! I've rented it, it's part of the "Lon Chaney Collection" I can't remember which volume, but it's listed as a special feature. It is presented as a series of stills with text in between to fill in the blanks of the story.

And I hate to say it, but it's a lame story. I won't go into spoilers (as this is readily available on DVD!) but the story certainly wasn't what I thought it was and not terribly exciting...and I am a huge Lon Chaney fan.

Yes, he looks awesome. I've long been fetishizing the make-up design, but the story is weak compared to ANY of the classics people have suggested to lose in favor of this one.

Lose the Spanish-language Dracula??? I find it even moodier than Brownings version...sure it's missing Lugosi, but it's still wonderful. And Night of the Living Dead is my all-time favorite film...couldn't dream of losing it.

Very interesting thread indeed, but I love the classics too much to destroy one on speculation of what could have been.

But I'm a tremendous nerd, so...

[Despare]

I love the classics too much to destroy one on speculation of what could have been.

That's exactly how I feel. Why get rid of something great or something your love because you MIGHT enjoy something else? As for FREAKS, I enjoy the version that's available now just fine, I wouldn't be willing to give up anything to get a longer cut.