Le Monde perdu

Modern audience members won't exactly be scared or thrilled by the living, breathing dinosaurs in this 75 plus year old classic. They will see a visually amazing silent classic. THE LOST WORLD tells of an exhibition that finds mammoth dinosaurs on a plateau in the Amazon. A brontosaurus is brought back to London. Willis O'Brien's stop-motion animation is rather fluid, (as compared to the short animated comedies he made around 1918) There are also neat uses of matte work, rear screen and double exposures.

The recent DVD re-issue of LOST WORLD is a keeper. It even has LOST WORLD animation out-takes with single frames of O'Brien and his assistant accidently caught on film. Requied viewing for the student of cinematic special effects.

This was the first movie I ever taped when I got my first VCR back in the 1980's. I saw it was going to be on at 3:00 a.m., so I decided to try the programming to see it it worked. It did. I was so excited. The movie is so much fun. It has Wallace Beery as a borderline madman scientist leading an expedition to a far off island to find dinosaurs. There is a subplot of a reporter who is trying to talk him into letting him go along. There are scenes where Professor Challenger (Beery) chases and assaults this man because he hates reporters. Of course, we all know the story. They do bring back a dinosaur and it gets loose (ala King Kong) and leaves a path of destruction. The special effects are like Claymation, but one could only wonder how exciting and impressive these things were in their time. As a period piece, I urge people to see this. There are full length prints of it, not just the one some have commented on, which only shows the dinosaur scenes. If you have an open mind, you will have a lot of fun.

In this 1925 silent era film, a Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) leads a group of British explorers to South America, to prove to the civilized world that there exists a land of living prehistoric creatures. What the explorers find is exactly that ... a rugged Amazon plateau inhabited by all kinds of dinosaurs. It's a wonderful film concept befitting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's adventure novel. The dinosaurs were brought to cinematic life via stop-motion animation, the first time that the then new technique had been applied, on such a grand cinematic scale. For its visuals alone, "The Lost World" is an important film.

The problem I have is not with the film, but with the way the film has been mishandled in the eighty years since it was released. Much of the original film was lost or cut out, a sad commentary on the way our culture has underestimated the value of silent films. Recently, the film has been at least partially restored. That, in turn, has led to confusion as to the extent to which the film being watched reflects the original.

My understanding is that there is or was: (1) an original full length version, no longer available; (2) a thirty-two minute version shown as a short film; (3) a sixty-three minute original DVD version; and (4) a ninety minute restored, extended DVD version complete with soundtrack and commentary. None of these versions are exactly alike, and there may be other versions as well.

The version I watched was on DVD, and was sixty-three minutes in length; there was no soundtrack, no commentary. Since this version is vastly different from the original, and different from other versions, a conventional critique would be unfair. All that I can do is to make a couple of general observations.

The special effects were impressive for their time. But what I most liked was the film's sense of three-dimensional scale, as shown in many scenes, the tree bridge to the plateau, for example, or the rope ladder hanging down the side of the cliff with a person climbing down. Such scenes convey a sense of distance and height, important to any physical adventure or risk. What I found disconcerting was the scenes of dinosaurs detached from the characters. Most of the time, but not always, these dinosaur scenes were shown from the POV that would be optimal for the cinematic viewer, rather than from the POV of the characters. In other words, the dinosaurs were usually shown out of context to the film's narrative.

"The Lost World" (1925) is an important contribution to early cinema. Although the film may be somewhat tedious to watch and technically crude by today's standards, depending on version, the film will most surely be appreciated by film historians and by technicians interested in the evolution of cinematic special effects.

I'm so glad that this film has been fully reconstructed to its almost original length - we can finally see The Lost World the way its filmmakers meant it to be seen. We can also see the problems and strengths more clearly as well. First, let's get the weaknesses out of the way: it takes its precious time a bit too much, the ape man looks so hilariously awful that it betrays the film's earnestness, a poorly written minor character is regrettably in blackface, and the film has several clumsily edited montages that do nothing but pad the movie's running time. I also didn't believe in the love triangle nor in the romantic leads' attraction for each other, but then that's because I'm almost never impressed by love triangles in general.

Now that we've gotten all the negative aspects out of the way, let's talk about the film's overwhelmingly positive assets. The stop-motion dinosaurs are rightfully the film's highlight; Willis O'Brien poured his heart and soul into animating these creatures. Even better, he gives each one of the animals their own unique personality: viciousness, tenderness, even grumpiness. I secretly wish that the dinosaurs took up more screen time - maybe bring all of them to London so they can wreak havoc on Professor Challenger's naysayers; but that's the little monstrous child in me desiring that.

Another delightful positive belongs to the energetic cast - most of them were up to the challenge and deserve to be mentioned right alongside their claymation attractions. Bessie Love gives a heartbreaking performance in an admittedly stock character as all she wants is her dear father to be alive and well. Meanwhile, Wallace Beery makes for an entertaining Professor Challenge that one can see why his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was more proud of him than with his most famous character, Sherlock Holmes.

A major revelation for those watching Flicker Alley's new Blu-Ray is that the film is visually sumptuous. After decades of existing in inferior black-and-white prints, The Lost World finally can be seen in its original tints that add a true artistry to it. It makes the film have the timeless feel of a Romantic etching or painting. This further proves how sophisticated silent movies were as an art form back in their heyday, as actual effort was spent to make the filmmaking experience an intensely moving one. No wonder why this film sparked the dinosaur craze that is still present today; it's really a well-done crowd pleaser!

This first, silent version of The Lost World is the best one for dinosaur fans as it has more dinosaurs in it than any other. I have two VHS copies of this, an hour long version and the restored copy, which lasts for about 100 minutes.

Professor Challenger leads a party into an uncharted part of the Amazon where prehistoric monsters still live. When there, they explore the land and see the many dinosaurs that roam it. They then decide to try and capture one of these alive and bring it back to London! They manage this and bring back a Brontosaurus, but it escapes and goes on the rampage through London, brings down Tower Bridge and then escapes down the Thames.

The stop-motion dinosaurs are done excellently by Willis O'Brien and also include Allosaurus, Tricertops and Pteranodon.

The cast includes Wallace Beery as Chellenger, Bessie Love and Lewis Stone.

This movie is a must see, especially if you are a fan of dinosaur movies like myself. Excellent.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.