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In 1927, Lon Chaney; The Man Of A Thousand Faces introduced the most frightening face in his arsenal to audiences, in an MGM silent feature called "London After Midnight." Unfortunately, the only remnants of that picture is a wealth of stills, since the nitrate stock the film was originally duplicated on has since dissolved, leaving the film world completely devoid of this classic! By the time this film was remade with sound under the title "Mark Of the Vampire" in the early 30's, Lon Chaney had died, and his classic vampire character was inherited by Bela Lugosi.
In the film "London After Midnight," The Man In The Beaver Hat was not an actual vampire, but a very resourceful Scotland Yard inspector who used histalents for hypnosis and make-up to provoke superstitious criminals into confessing their crimes.
by several talented costumers and make-up effects artists. An actual vintage 100 year-old beaver top hat was purchased on ebay, a hand-tied Yak-hair wig was created by Naimie's in North Hollywood, the teeth were fabricated by top Hollywood toothmeister Gary Archer of GA Enterprises, custom contact lenses were made by Dr. Stacey Sumner, and the costume was fabricated by Hollywood costumer Rebecca Richards.
Wally decided to present the character in its original monochrome form, so various shades of gray were worked into the make-up equation. Even a special solution was created to blacken the inside of Wally's mouth. CLICK HERE to see the step-by-step make-up process.
"Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine will be featuring Wally's LAM character in an upcoming issue and coffee table book.
