"To the boy who's half a man,
And the man who's half a boy."
Arthur Conan Doyle
In 1929 a bizarre decision was made to withdraw all prints of The Lost World in order to re-invent it for the new age of sound. The remake, of course, became King Kong, still the most renowned and revered of all monster movies. The Lost World survived only in heavily truncated 16mm home versions, but in 1993 a 35mm print of the Czech version was discovered and several years of restoration have returned this lost film to the world.
Based upon Arthur Conan Doyle's popular novel, The Lost World sees clumsy reporter Edward Malone join Prof. Challenger's expedition to prove that dinosaurs still roam parts of the earth. Edward wants to demonstrate his bravery to fickle fiancée Gladys, whilst providing his paper with a story. Joining them are doubtful Prof. Summerlee, big-game hunter Sir John Roxton, Jocko the cheeky monkey with a talent for detecting poisonous fruit and sultry Miss White, whose father's journal is one of the few things surviving a prior expedition. Despite an incredulous response to their plans, the voyagers set out for a remote plateau isolated from the Amazonian forests and accessible only by precarious use of felled trees. Sure enough the plateau is a prehistoric paradise replete with thundering creatures.
Forget Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park and enjoy the genuine article. Before CGI, before the standardisation of colour or sound techniques, audiences were astounded by Willis O'Brien's remarkable stop-frame animated monsters, and with good reason. The dinosaurs have tremendous character; they interact with their surroundings, they eat, chew, look inquisitive, fight, bleed and, most important to suspending disbelief, they visibly breathe. The range of creatures is quite astonishing, from brontosaurus to pterodactyl to brightly marked insects. There's even a remarkably complex stampede, complete with dust. Much of the action takes place with humans or moving rivers in the same shot, further enhancing the realism. Similarly when the expedition brings a dinosaur back to London, its escape and subsequent rampage through the city is genuinely scary and intense.
The impact of The Lost World is immense. Apart from O'Brien's timeless work on King Kong and the films of his protégé Ray Harryhaussen, there are countless others in its wake. This is not to say that The Lost World was cinema's first example of the animated dinosaur. Ladislaw Starewicz was producing remarkable insect-based stop motion films in the early parts of the century while Winsor McCay's Gertie The Dinosaur (1914) laid the foundations of 2D animation in the shape of an endearingly cute brontosaurus. But The Lost World's impact on future productions cannot be overestimated. As the packaging of this release aptly points out "without The Lost World there would have been no King Kong and no Jurassic Park."
Eureka's DVD is a fine showcase for the film's re-issue, especially considering its age and rarity. Behind the Edwardian-style typewriter themed menus there's an essay, test footage and out-takes of the dinosaurs - including instances where you can compare the scale of the models with their operators - as well as a choice of soundtrack. You can watch with a contemporary score (which works especially well during exposition), a modern one (which enhances the menace of the dinosaur scenes) or with a commentary by The Lost World expert Roy Pilot. A splendid package which will hopefully rekindle interest in this lost classic.
Reviewed by Colin Odell & Michelle Le Blanc
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