Singing at Midnight (Yeban gesheng) dir. / sc. Ma-Xu Weibang With Jin Shan, Hu Ping, Shi Chao, Gu Menghe Shanghai: Xinhua Film, 1937.

The basic story line of this Chinese horror film resembles. *The Phantom of the Opera* (dir.Rupert Julian, 1925). However, by situating the story against the context of warlordism, *Singing at Midnight* injects a heavy dose of social criticism. A traveling performance troupe stays in an old theater building where the male lead, Sun, receives help from a 'ghost' during his rehearsals. The ghost later reveals himself to Sun as a well-known revolutionary who, in order to avoid political persecution, changed his name to Song and took up acting as a career. Ten years earlier, he fell in love with the town's beauty, Miss Li, thus making a local thug who also took an interest in Li extremely jealous. The thug deformed Song's face. Not wanting to be seen in public with such a grizzly appearance, Song pretended to be dead and asked his loyal servant to arrange a fake funeral. Upon hearing this news, Li was too traumatized to maintain her sanity. Song now feels guilty about what happened to Li and keeps her company by singing for her in the middle of the night. Hence, the theater building is believed to be haunted. After telling his story, Song begs Sun to act like him and visit Li, hoping this may help Li recover. And when Sun does so, Li indeed mistakes him for Song and shows signs of recovery. Meanwhile, Song helps Sun's troupe stage a new show. The local thug who had earlier victimized Song is now interested in Ludie, the troupe's female lead and Sun's lover. In a final showdown, Ludie is shot while trying to protect Sun. Song comes out of hiding and kills the thug. But the crowd mistakenly perceive Song to be the evil doer and chase after him. The police also learn of his past revolutionary activities and try to arrest him. Surrounded by his pursuers, Song commits suicide by jumping into the river. As people mourn Song's death, they can hear him singing once more. The film was a huge box-office success and led to remakes in Shanghai and Hong Kong, some as late as the 1990s.

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