THE LOST WORLD
The Lost World
(First National Pictures, USA, 1925)
dir.: Harry O. Hoyt; script: Marion Fairfax based on the novel The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle; photog.: Arthur Edeson
cast: Bessie Love (Paula White), Lewis Stone (Sir John Roxton), Lloyd Hughes (Edward Malone), Wallace Beery (Professor Challenger), Arthur Hoyt (Professor Summerlee), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (as himself)
DCP, 105’; tinted; intertitles: EN, subtitles: PL; restored 2016; source: Lobster Films
In order to prove his courage to his beloved, Ed Malone, a London newspaper reporter, goes to South America on a scientific expedition in search of the last remaining dinosaurs. Together with Professor Challenger and his team, he discovers a plateau where the prehistoric creatures still roam...
Dinosaurs appeared relatively early in the history of cinema. Winsor McCay’s animated film featuring Gertie the dinosaur appeared in 1914, and a year later came the stop-motion puppet animation The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy by Willis O’Brien, who in subsequent years would go on to create many memorable animated dinosaur scenes, such as in The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918) and Along the Moonbeam Trail (1920). His most important work, however, was on the sequences he made for The Lost World from 1925, the first-ever feature film about dinosaurs, and still one of the greatest achievements in this genre. The special effects are undoubtedly the film’s biggest draw, and it has even been said that the acting and the whole story are secondary as they merely provide the background and are an excuse to show off the technical tricks depicting the dinosaurs.
The film was based on the famous novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from 1912. In later years, the novel would be repeatedly transferred to the big screen, but it was this first film adaptation by Hoyt that went down in the history of cinema. It was also the only one made during the writer’s lifetime and he personally appeared in the film’s prologue. Interestingly, The Lost World is also the first-ever film shown (in 1925!) as in-flight entertainment for aeroplane passengers. (MP)
The film has been restored three times – in 1998, 2000 and 2016. The most recent restoration, carried out by Lobster Films and using materials from eleven separate print sources, is the most complete version and almost equal in running time to the film’s original release length.
introduction to the movie: Michał Pieńkowski
section: LOST WORLDS
music by: Zvanai
FRIDAY | October 22
22:00 | screening room: STOLICA
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THE LOST WORLD, source: Lobster Films
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THE LOST WORLD, source: Lobster Films
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THE LOST WORLD, source: Lobster Films