Search - The Lost World on DVD

Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1925 DVD Release: 04/13/1999 Format: DVD Edition: Special Collection Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 30 mins Studio: Sling Shot Members Wishing: 3 Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Prehistoric Fantasy See Also: The Lost World, The Lost World, The Lost World

This adventure virtually butchers its source, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. But with stop-motion photography and special effects that were incredibly innovative in 1924 and 1925, who cared? These effects were the whole film, and Wallace Beery's inspired performance was a bonus. The tale opens on reporter Edward Malone (Lloyd Hughes), who wants to marry Gladys Hungerford (Alma Bennett). Gladys, however, only wants to marry a man of great deeds. So Malone, having asked his editor for an adventuresome assignment, is given the task of interviewing Professor Challenger (Beery), who is planning an expedition to a "lost world." Malone accompanies Challenger and his men to South America where, on a great plateau, they find a prehistoric world occupied by dinosaurs and ape-like men. They barely escape with their lives, but they manage to bring a brontosaurus back to London. The beast breaks out and terrorizes the city before crashing through the London bridge and swimming out toward the ocean to freedom. In the midst of all this, Malone has fallen in love with Paula White, the daughter of an explorer (Bessie Love). Since Gladys, it turns out, has married a clerk, Malone is able to wed his new sweetheart. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Bessie Love - Paula White
Lloyd Hughes - Edward J Malone
Wallace Beery - Prof. Challenger
Arthur Hoyt - Prof. Summerlee

Harry Hoyt's 1925 version of The Lost World was an extraordinary movie in its time. Handsomely produced and well-acted, with superb special effects designed by Willis O'Brien, it holds up solidly more than three quarters of a century later. With an all-star cast including Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, and Bessie Love, it was a box-office blockbuster in its own time, and although only a 65-minute edition survives from the original 108 minutes, this still has a lot to recommend it. The story, adapted from the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is familiar from the remakes. Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) leads an expedition to a remote corner of South America where dinosaurs still exist. After adventures battling the local populace, they succeed in bringing a dinosaur back to London, where it escapes and threatens to destroy the city. The parallels with King Kong, made seven years later by O'Brien, are obvious, but the film holds up on its own terms as one of the most eminently watchable of silent films.
The film-to-video transfer is the same as that used on the Lumivision laserdisc, which was superb. The 35 mm archival source, from the George Eastman House, has a great deal of detail, all of which is brought out in the film-to-video transfer. The tinting is far more subtle than is the case with many silent presentations on video, and the synchronized music, a score built around an electronic keyboard but very naturalistic, enhances the action considerably. The latter moves along at a brisk pace, and the movie is filled with excitement as well as very in-depth, well-rounded portrayals, and it's easy to forget that this is a silent film. The disc is well-produced, with a generous chapter selection and an easy-to-navigate menu, which pops up automatically on start-up. The DVD looks cleaner and sharper than the laserdisc and has the same bonus features -- the O'Brien-designed short films "The Dinosaur and The Missing Link," "R.F.D. 10,000 B.C.," and "Prehistoric Poultry," and a still-frame gallery that recreates the missing scenes from the original 108-minute version. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide