Themes: Lost Worlds, Heroic Mission, Survival in the Wilderness
Main Cast: Bessie Love, Lloyd Hughes, Wallace Beery, Arthur Hoyt, Margaret McWade
Release Year: 1925
Country: US
Run Time: 62 minutes
Plot
This adventure virtually butchers its source, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. But with stop-motion photography and special effects that were incredibly innovative in 1924 and 1925, who cared? These effects were the whole film, and Wallace Beery's inspired performance was a bonus. The tale opens on reporter Edward Malone (Lloyd Hughes), who wants to marry Gladys Hungerford (Alma Bennett). Gladys, however, only wants to marry a man of great deeds. So Malone, having asked his editor for an adventuresome assignment, is given the task of interviewing Professor Challenger (Beery), who is planning an expedition to a "lost world." Malone accompanies Challenger and his men to South America where, on a great plateau, they find a prehistoric world occupied by dinosaurs and ape-like men. They barely escape with their lives, but they manage to bring a brontosaurus back to London. The beast breaks out and terrorizes the city before crashing through the London bridge and swimming out toward the ocean to freedom. In the midst of all this, Malone has fallen in love with Paula White, the daughter of an explorer (Bessie Love). Since Gladys, it turns out, has married a clerk, Malone is able to wed his new sweetheart. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Review
Reportedly seven years in the making, this silent adventure based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic 1912 novel was a watershed mark in special effects filmmaking. Willis H. O'Brien's stop-motion work, which would reach near-perfection in King Kong (1933), was much admired in its day and although primitive by modern standards remains visually engaging. So does Wallace Beery, complete with a theatrical beard, as Professor Challenger, whose theory of prehistoric dinosaurs surviving on a secluded plateau in the Amazonian jungle has made him the target of ridicule. Intrepid reporter Ed Malone (Lloyd Hughes) offers the professor a chance to redeem himself, and with Big Game hunter Sir John Roxton (Lewis Stone) and pretty Paula White (Bessie Love) in tow, they are off on a perilous expedition to South America. Paula, who is returning to the jungle in search of her missing scientist father, falls in love with the handsome reporter, much to the chagrin of Sir John. This triangle drama continues up the perilous climb to the plateau where Professor Challenger's theories are terrifyingly substantiated by all kinds of prehistoric fauna. Soon, a flesh-eating Tyranosaurus is attacking a family of more benign Triceratopses right in front of the astounded humans, who also have to contend with an erupting volcano, the dried-up bones of Paula's poor father, and the bizarre spectacle of stunt-man Bull Montana in a gorilla suit. But with the able assistance of a lovesick pet monkey, the expedition not only makes it safely down from the plateau but returns to England complete with a captured brontosaurus. Unfortunately, the beast is soon loose on Piccadilly Circus (where a theater marquee is advertising The Sea Hawk, 1924, also produced by First National), on Tower Bridge, and in sundry other picturesque London locations before apparently drowning in the River Thames. Originally released in 10 reels, The Lost World was cut to the bone in 1930 and it is this 62 minute version that exists today, beautifully restored by the George Eastman House. Missing, however, are subplots involving Alma Bennett as Lloyd Hughes' demanding London fiancé, Virginia Brown Faire as a Brazilian half-caste tempting Lewis Stone and a rendezvous with a tribe of cannibals. Left intact, however, are a few uncomfortable sequences with comic actor Jules Cowles appearing in blackface as Stone's pidgin-accented servant. Willis H. O'Brien's monsters may not frighten contemporary kids, with today's high special effects standards, but they certainly hold up well in comparison to some of the tacky creatures let lose in the 1950s and early 1960s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Margaret McWade - Mrs. Challenger; Frank Finch Smiles - Austin, Challenger's Butler; Jules Cowles - Zambo; Bull Montana - Ape Man; George Bunny - Colin McArdle; Alma Bennett - Gladys Hungeford; Virginia Brown Faire - Marquette; Lewis Stone - Sir John Roxton; Charles Wellesley - Maj. Hibbard
Credit
Harry Hoyt - Director, William Dowling - Director, George McGuire - Editor, Arthur Edeson - Cinematographer, Carl Laemmle, Sr. - Producer, Milton Menasco - Set Designer, Earl Hudson - Supervisor/Manager, Marion Fairfax - Screenwriter, Arthur Conan Doyle - Short Story Author
The Brontosaurus escapes and causes havoc in the city - the very first example of a plot device which would be used in innumerable later films
The journal of explorer Maple White is recovered from a plateau (see tepui) in Venezuela featuring sketches of dinosaurs, which is enough proof for the eccentric Professor Challenger that dinosaurs still walk the earth. With that, John Roxton (sportsman), news reporter Edward Malone (who wishes to go on the expedition to impress his fiancée), Challenger and Paula White as well as an Indian servant, Zambo, and Challenger's butler Austin leave for the plateau.
At their campsite, the explorers are shocked when they discover that a large rock has been sent their way by an ape-man perched on top of an overhead ledge. As the crew looks up to see their attacker, Challenger spies a Pteranodon (mistakenly referred to as a pterodactyl in the film) overhead and proves that the statement in Maple White's diary is true. Leaving Zambo and Austin at the camp, they get onto the plateau by cutting down a tree and using it as a bridge, but it is knocked over by a brontosaurus, leaving them trapped.
The explorers witness various life-and-death struggles between the prehistoric beasts of the plateau. During which, an Allosaurus makes its way to the camp site and attacks the exploration party. It is finally driven off by Ed Malone who throws a burning torch into the beast's mouth. Convinced that the camp isn't safe, Ed Malone climbs a tree to search for a new location, but is attacked by the ape-man. John Roxton succeeds in shooting the ape man, but the creature is merely wounded and escapes before John can finish him off.
The explorers then make preparations to live on the plateau potentially indefinitely. A catapult is constructed and a in search for Maple White, his remains are found confirming his death. It is at this time that Ed confesses his love for Paula and the two are unofficially wed.
Shortly afterwards, as the paleontologists are observing a Brontosaurus, it is attacked by an allosaur and falls off the edge of the plateau, becoming trapped in a mud bank. Soon afterwards, a volcano erupts, causing a mass stampede among the giant beasts of the prehistoric world. In the end, the crew is saved when Paula White's pet monkey Jocko climbs a rope up the plateau and the crew climb down.
As Ed makes his descent, he is again attacked by the ape-man who pulls the rope later. The ape-man is again shot, and this time killed, by Sir John Roxton. The Brontosaurus that was pushed off the plateau had landed softly in the mud at the bottom of the plateau, and Challenger manages to bring it back to London, as he wants to put it on display.
However, while being unloaded from the ship it escapes and causes havoc until it reaches Tower Bridge, where its massive weight causes a collapse, and it swims down the River Thames. Challenger is morose as the creature leaves, whereas Edward Malone discovers that the love he left in London has married in his absence, allowing him and Paula to be together. It is now Roxton's turn to be morose.
"Brontosaurus" (after falling into a bog at the conclusion of a fight with an Allosaurus, one is captured and taken to civilization, where it escapes and terrorizes the city)
Pteranodon (the first prehistoric animal seen by the team of explorers)
Stegosaurus (escaped the volcanic eruption with many other animals)
George Eastman House - Laserdisc preservation with stills showing missing scenes
George Eastman House - Film restoration using materials from Czechoslovakian archive. Many sequences still missing and some inadvertently left out
David Shepard, Serge Bromberg - DVD restoration using Kodascope prints, Czechoslovakian archive materials, and trailers
Missing or Deleted Scenes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sits at his desk, writing The Lost World (footage of Doyle, found in some copies, was taken from a 1927 interview)
Ed Malone sees three people sent to interview Challenger, bruised and bandaged
Ed Malone escapes from Challenger in the Zoological Museum by climbing on the back of the Brontosaurus skeleton
The explorers are attacked by cannibals
The native bearers, lead by Gomez, mutiny and injure Zambo's arm
Challenger scrambles onto railing of bridge to watch the Brontosaurus swim out to sea
Scenes rediscovered but not added back
A Brontosaurus feeds on some leaves
A Triceratops family enjoy each other's company
An Allosaurus is distraught over a Brontosaurus escaping over a cliff
Two brontosaurs have a confrontation
A Triceratops herd is seen with an Allosaurus in the background
A Trachodon eats while an Allosaurus stalks it from the background
An Agathaumas and Stegosaurus battle over space
(These can be found as animation outtakes on some DVD copies)
In 2004 an incomplete, original tinted/toned/hand-colored nitrate 35 mm print of the original version of The Lost World was discovered and purchased by Film Preservation Associates.
Background
Willis O'Brien combined animated dinosaurs with live-action footage of human beings, but at first he was able to do this only by separating the frame into two parts (also known as split screen). As work went on, O'Brien's technique grew better and he could combine live-action and stop-motion footage in the same part of the screen.
In 1922, Conan Doyle showed O'Brien's test reel to a meeting of the Society of American Magicians, which included Harry Houdini. The astounded audience watched footage of a Triceratops family, an attack by an Allosaurus and some Stegosaurus footage. Doyle refused to discuss the film's origins. On the next day, the New York Times ran a front page article about it, saying "(Conan Doyle’s) monsters of the ancient world, or of the new world which he has discovered in the ether, were extraordinarily lifelike. If fakes, they were masterpieces"[2].
The dinosaurs of this film were based on the artwork of Charles R. Knight.
Some of the dinosaur models used in the film came into the famous collection of the fantasy lover Forrest J Ackerman. The models were not specially preserved, and with time the rubber dried out and fell to pieces, leaving only the metallic armatures.
The Lost World became the first film to be shown to airline passengers. This happened in April 1925 on a London-Paris flight by the company Imperial Airways. As film stock of the era was nitrate and highly flammable, this was a risky undertaking on a wood and fabric-hulled plane.
This was the first feature length film made in the United States, possibly the world, to feature model animation as the primary special effect, or stop motion animation in general.
This is the first dinosaur-oriented film hit, and it led to other dinosaur movies, from King Kong to the Jurassic Park trilogy.
References
^Glut, Donald F.; Brett-Surman, Michael K. (1997). "Dinosaurs and the media". in Farlow, James; and Brett-Surman, Michael K. (eds.). The Complete Dinosaur. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. pp. 675–706. ISBN0-253-33349-0.
^ Pettigrew, Neil, The Stop-Motion Filmography, MacFarland and Company, Inc., 1999, p. 427.
