B&W/Tinted, 1925, 91 mins. Directed by Willis H. O'Brien & Harry O. Hoyt
Starring Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Bessie Love, Lloyd Hughes / Cinematography by Arthur Edeson
Format: DVD - Image (MSRP $29.98) Full Frame / Dolby Digital 5.1
Anyone who thinks silent movies are boring would be well advised to check out The Lost World, the first great rampaging dinosaur movie. Before King Kong, Gorgo, Godzilla, Ray Harryhausen, and Jurassic Park, there was The Lost World, an ambitious adaptation of the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Forget such niceties as plot and character development; the real reason to see
In late 1800s London, Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) has drawn the scorn of his colleagues by claiming that prehistoric dinosaurs still exist on this planet. Explorers have been disappearing in a remote area near the Amazon rain forests, and evidence is mounting that beasts never seen by human eyes could be lurking in the impenetrable jungle. The big clue comes from Paula White (Bessie Love), who supplies the diary of her vanished explorer father mentioning the strange sights he has witnessed on his journey. Edward Malone (Lloyd Hughes), a newspaper reporter, raises money to fund another expedition with Challenger, White, and hunter extraordinaire Sir John Roxton (Lewis Stone) to seek out the lost explorer and discover the truth about these reptilian creatures.
The true star of The Lost World is unquestionably Willis O'Brien, the special effects genius who later revolutionized fantastic cinema with King Kong in 1933. Here he handles all of the technical dino sequences, which are cleverly executed and exciting as long as viewers are willing to set aside years of jaded reactions in our CGI heavy era. Dinos of every shape and size make an appearance here, from a Tyrannousaurs Rex to a memorable brontosaurus wreaking havoc in London during the crackerjack finale. Film fans can also have fun pinpointing the scenes copied in later films, though the most obvious guilty party is Michael Crichton, whose sequel to Jurassic Park used both the title of Conan Doyle's novel and lifted
The Lost World has been in dire need of restoration for decades, with the most complete print clocking in at barely over an hour. The original 1925 exhibition prints reportedly ran about 106 minutes, but distributors pared it down to focus on the effects sequences, rendering the plot incomprehensible. A laserdisc and DVD from Lumivision attempted to correct some of the damage by using stills and explanatory title cards to fill in for the missing footage, but this new edition from Blackhawk Films, handled by Serge Bromberg and the inestimable David Shepard, goes one better by utilizing recently uncovered prints in the Czech Republic to assemble the most complete version available. An opening crawl explains that eight separate prints were used, but the composite has been made so seamlessly you'd be hard pressed to notice. The image quality is quite good, apart from some of the usual hairline scratches you expect to see in most silent films. The tinting has been done with a great deal of care, using ochre or brown for the civilized interior scenes, aqua for most of the outdoor footage, and black and white for flashbacks. The disc also sports two separate musical scores, a 5.1 mix heavy on percussion, synth, and sound effects, and a 2.0 mix for a more traditional, chamber piece style accompaniment. The former actually works better in service of the film, goosing up the excitement factor several notches during the dinosaur battles. The disc also contains a feature commentary by Roy Pilot, author of 1996's The Annotated Lost World, a book which also provided one of the supplementary visual sections on the disc. Pilot covers every possible tidbit of information you could possibly want to know, discussing the source novel, the effects creation process, the film's distribution and cutting history, and much, much more. Another astounding bonus is a 13 minute reel of silent animation outtakes by O'Brien, with some nifty close ups of his amazing creatures. Finally the DVD is lavishly packaged with a color 15 page replica of the theatrical souvenir program, which is worth the price tag by itself.
this film is to gasp at dinos tussling and stomping all over the screen, and while the effects may look a bit primitive today, this remains a bravura piece of film making for all ages.
Upon arrival, their observation of monkeys is interrupted by a strange man-ape creature and a pterodactyl, indicating they may indeed be on the right track. Sure enough, as they venture deeper, dinosaurs abound... and the humans being to think about possibly bringing one back home with them.
many sequences as well. What's next, a Crichton vampire novel called Dracula? Incidentally, Conan Doyle also appears onscreen for a prologue to introduce his story -- a nice touch.
