People, dinosaurs, sensation: “The lost world“ from 1925 has all that and offers so much more. The film impressed at the time with its sensational special effects. Long-extinct creatures have been brought back to life through stop-motion magic. Today, silent film invites you to dream and tells of a simple cinematic time when riotous blockbusters drenched in green screens were not yet boring. If you want to embark on this classic adventure journey, you now have the opportunity to do so on Amazon Prime Video. Subscribers can currently stream the colored version here at no additional cost:
If you prefer to watch silent films in the classic way with scenes in black and white, you can also find the film on YouTube. Since the film has now entered the public domain, it can also be viewed legally here:
And that’s what ‘The Lost World’ is about
Ed Malone (Lloyd Hughes) is in love. But his crush Gladys (Alma Bennett) only wants to marry a man who has already bravely laughed in the face of danger. That’s why the editor of the London Record Journal decides to join Professor Challenger’s (Wallace Beery) expedition. The eccentric eccentric wants to prove that dinosaurs have survived in the Amazon jungle for thousands of years – and at the same time find the missing researcher Maple White, who went missing during one of the previous research trips.
The group is completed by the hunter Sir John Roxton (Lewis Stone), Maple White’s daughter Paula (Bessie Love) and the quirky entomologist Summerlee (Arthur Hoyt). After an arduous journey, the group arrives at the place where, according to Maple White’s data, dinosaurs are said to have survived. And indeed: the researchers soon encounter some terrifying giant lizards. But due to an unfortunate coincidence, the expedition’s return route was ruined. Can Ed Malone escape the lost world and its dangers?
Without ‘The Lost World’ there would be no King Kong
I love classic monster cinema. For me, 1933’s “King Kong and the White Woman” is one of the greatest films of all time – a screen gem that I can enjoy again and again. It’s pure cinema magic how gigantic creatures were brought to life on screen 90 years ago.
I appreciate it all the more Harry O. Hoyts extraordinary adventure film ‘The Lost World’, because without this film the giant ape – and many other blockbusters – would not have existed in its current form. For example, cartoonist and stop-motion pioneer Willis O’Brien, who would later bring King Kong to life, brought the giant lizards to life in ‘The Lost World’ – and here tested the elements of his stop-motion art that ” ” King Kong and the White Woman’ must make it such an impressive spectacle that will resonate for decades to come.
Yet you can clearly see that the technology is still in its infancy. In contrast to King Kong, who became a living figure under O’Brien’s guidance (the trick technique is still impressive despite his age), the dinosaurs in the 1925 adventure classic seem a lot clumsier and at times downright comically clumsy.
Yet there are of course also impressive trick sequences in “The Lost World”. The star of the imaginative stop-motion cabinet is undoubtedly the Allosaurus. In the hands of Willis O’Brien, the creature becomes a destructive force of nature, tearing apart everything in its path out of pure pleasure – and even simply fishing a pterodactyl out of the air. The whole thing eventually becomes a bit repetitive, because the Allosaurus is really a real fighting pig that looks for conflict at every corner. Nevertheless, the brutal confrontations are one of the technical highlights of the film.
“The Lost World” and Steven Spielberg
Particularly noteworthy is the film’s legendary final act. An injured Brontosaurus is shipped to London to be presented to the scientific community as proof of the existence of living dinosaurs. But the monster breaks out and causes chaos in the streets of the metropolis. N/A? Does that sound familiar? Steven Spielberg has the sequel to his blockbuster hit “Jurassic ParkIt is not without reason that the addition “Forgotten World” (original: “The Lost World: Jurassic Park“) lost.
Based on the silent film classic, master director Spielberg also has a gigantic lizard stomp through the streets of a city with millions of people. Instead of London, San Diego is being terrorized this time – and the dinosaur is also a lot more dangerous. Instead of a relaxed bronto, an adult Tyrannosaurus searches for its young and leaves a path of destruction in its wake.
Of course, ‘The Lost World’ is no longer as impressive today as it was almost 100 years ago. And yes, there are some difficult scenes in this film from today’s perspective (keyword: blackface). Nevertheless, the silent film is an impressive work of its time, the echoes of which still resonate in contemporary blockbuster cinema. For this reason alone, all lovers of the fantastic, every fan of life-size movie monsters, and all fans of modern popcorn cinema should definitely see this impressive relic from a long-gone film era.