Film Review: The Lost World (1925)

Dinosaurs are popular content for film and television today and many mistakenly credit Steven Spielberg and his Jurassic Park as the catalyst for it. In reality, giant prehistoric beasts have aroused popular imagination for at least past two centuries, inspiring many works of art and speculative fiction. This included film makers, even in the beginnings of cinema, which saw recreation of long extinct animals as worthy challenge, resulting in development of new genres like animation film or special effects technology. The best known, and arguably the most influential of such works in silent era is The Lost World, 1925 science fiction adventure film directed by Harry O. Hoyt.

The film is based on eponymous 1912 novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the first in the series about Professor Challenger. Doyle, who, although best known as creator of Sherlock Holmes claimed that he preferred Challenger as his favourite character, is briefly introduced to the audience in person at the beginning of the film. The plot begins in London where young newspaper reporter Edward Malone (played by Lloyd Hughes) hears from his fiancee Gladys Hungerford (played by Alma Bennett) that she won’t marry him unless he does something extraordinary. Opportunity for that is provided by Professor Challenger (played by Wallace Beery), brilliant but controversial and bad-tempered scientist who is often an object of ridicule by sceptical for his bold claims. The last of this includes notes from a missing explorer Maple White, who apparently discovered living dinosaurs at the remote isolated plateau within Amazon basin. When Challenger starts expedition to find White and prove his claims, he is joined by sceptical professor Summerlee (played by Arthur Hoyt), big game hunter Sir John Roxton (played by Lewis Stone), White daughter Paula (played by Bessie Love) and Malone, who is to cover the event for his newspaper. After a long journey they arrive at the high plateau, which is completely inaccessible except for location where a tree is felled and serves as a bridge. They cross over but a brontosaurus later arrives and removes tree, making them trapped. Challenger and the rest of expedition must survive among the gigantic prehistoric fauna that involves carnivorous allosaurus, but also find a way home. As time goes by, Malone falls in love with Paula and, thinking that he would never return to Gladys and civilisation, wants to marry her with a help of Summerlee who used to be a priest. Volcanic eruption and Roxton’s discovery of alternative route will help Challenger not only to leave plateau but also to bring living specimen of brontosaurus to London and his sceptical peers.

Like many Hollywood silent era classics, The Lost World is best appreciated for its historic importance rather than entertainment value. While it is directed and acted quite well for the standards of its period, modern audience will soon recognise too much emphasis on cheap melodrama and misguided attempts of humour instead of action. Even more problematic, at least from today’s perspective, is the use of blackface for the character of African American servant Zambo, played by Jules Cowles. However, those flaws can be forgiven if the film is viewed from the perspective of its time and especially in light of simple but effective special effects and almost revolutionary use of stop motion photography which has brought ancient creatures to life. Film looks even more impressive near the end, when the captured brontosaurus set istelf free and creates mayhem on the streets of London. Those scenes were something quite extraordinary for the audience nearly century ago. Willis O’Brien, creator of special effects, has used experiences of this production well for his even more impressive and groundbreaking work on King Kong eight years later.

The Lost World also entered history as the first film to be shown to airline passengers during flight, which occurred on Handley Page O-400, converted WW1 biplane bomber during Imperial Airways flight between London and Paris in April 1925. The Lost World soon became irrelevant due to discovery of sound and for many years it became unavailable in its original form, until being properly restored after discovery of footage in Czech film archives. Despite that it left strong impression on future generations and was remade many times on film and television from 1960 till mid 2000s.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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