The Lost World (1925 film)
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| The Lost World | |
|---|---|
 1925 poster |
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| Directed by | Harry Hoyt |
| Produced by | Jamie White (executive) Earl Hudson (unc) |
| Written by | Arthur Conan Doyle (novel) Marion Fairfax (screenplay) |
| Starring | Bessie Love Lewis Stone Wallace Beery Lloyd Hughes Alma Bennett |
| Cinematography | Arthur Edeson |
| Editing by | George McGuire |
| Release date(s) | Feb. 2, 1925 (USA) June 22, 1925 (USA, wide release) |
| Running time | 106 (original) 55 (Kodascope 16mm) 64 (1991) 100 (1998) 93 (2000) |
| Country | USA |
| Language | silent |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Lost World is a 1925 silent adaptation of an Arthur Conan Doyle's book of the same name, with screen legend Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger. This version was directed by Harry O. Hoyt and featured pioneering stop motion special effects by Willis O'Brien (an invaluable warmup for his work on the original King Kong directed by Merian C. Cooper). The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
The journal of explorer Maple White is recovered from a plateau in South America 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 (whom wishes to go on the expedition to impress his fiance'), Challenger and Paula White (as well as an indian servent, Zambo) leave for the plateau. 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 are shocked when they discover that a large rock has been sent their way by an ape-man perched on top of a ledge. As the crew look 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. The explorers witness various life-and-death struggles between the prehistoric beasts of the platue. 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 preperations 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 of the edge of the platue, 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 Chico 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, it escapes and causes havoc until it reaches the London Bridge, where it's massive weight causes it to break through, into the English channel where it swims away. 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 an Paula to be together.
[edit] Cast/Characters in The Lost World
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Himself (pre-word)
- Bessie Love – Paula White
- Lewis Stone – Sir John Roxton
- Lloyd Hughes – Edward Malone
- Wallace Beery – Professor Challenger
- Arthur Hoyt – Professor Summerlee
- Alma Bennett – Gladys Hungerford
- Virginia Brown Faire – Marquette the half-cast girl
- Bull Montana – Ape Man / Gomez(Scenes deleted)
- Finch Smiles – Austin
- Jules Cowes (in blackface) – Zambo
- Margerette McWade – Mrs. Challenger
- George Bunny – Colin McArdle
- Jocko the Monkey – Himself
- Mary the Chimpanzee – Herself
[edit] Bestiary
[edit] Dinosaurs
- Agathaumas
- Allosaurus
- Ape man
- Brontosaurus
- Diplodocus (mentioned in the Program, but not shown)
- Pteranodon
- Stegosaurus
- Trachodon
- Triceratops
- Tyrannosaurus
[edit] Other animals on the plateau
- Capuchin Monkey
- Chimpanzee
- Unidentified lizards with frills and feathers
[edit] Animals seen in the Amazon, but not the plateau
- Anaconda
- Cayman or Alligator
- Marsh Deer
- Leopard (stock footage)
- Peccary
- Python
- "Spectical Bears"
- South American Tree Sloth (stock footage)
[edit] Restorations of The Lost World
- George Eastman House - Laserdisk preservation with stills showing missing scenes
- George Eastman House - Film restoration using materials from Czechoslovakian archive. Many sequences still missing and some inadvertantly left out
- David Shepard, Serge Bromberg - DVD restoration using Kodascope prints, Czechoslovakian archive materials, and trailers
[edit] 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
[edit] Scenes rediscovered but not added back in
- 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 brontosauri 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 outakes on some DVD copies)
- In 2004 an incomplete, original tinted/toned/hand-colored nitrate 35mm print of the original version of The Lost World was discovered and purchased by Film Preservation Associates.
[edit] Miscellanea
- Willis O'Brien combined animated dinosaurs with live-action footage of human beings, but at first he was only able to do this by separating the frame into two parts. 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.
- Before the film was released, Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini showed scenes from it to a meeting of the Society of American Magicians, after telling them that it was documentary footage of real dinosaurs. The astounded audience watched footage of a triceratops family, an attack by an allosaurus and some stegosaurus footage. 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".
- The dinosaurs of this film were based off of 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 Ackerman. The models were not specially preserved, and with time the rubber dried out and fell to pieces, leaving only the mettallic frame.
- The Lost World became the first film to be shown to plane passengers. This happened in April 1925 on a London-Paris flight by the company Imperial Airways.
