Nummy nummy in my tummy!
The surprisingly good The Lost World (1925) is the classic Arthur Conan Doyle story of the same name, but we found this particular silent film version on Amazon Prime. The movie we saw is a collage of 4 different prints, all damaged. This may account for some of the odd gaps in the story. Still, they claim it’s longer by half than any of the single reels they used to put this version together.
We start out with the venerable Professor Challenger, having returned from his first trip to the mysterious South American plateau supposedly hosting dinosaurs, with wild claims but no evidence. Jeered by rowdy students at a presentation, he calls for volunteers to return to the plateau, and he gets Sir Roxton, the hunter, Professor Summerlee, a critic, and Malone, the journalist looking for a risky adventure qualifying him for the love of beautiful Gladys. Accompanying them will be Paula White, daughter of Maple White, who was left behind on the previous expedition, fate unknown.
Upon arrival at the plateau, they soon see a pterodactyl in the distance, and while marveling at that, an ape tries to bombard them from the plateau above. Making the ascent, soon Summerlee is convinced of Challenger’s claims, but their way back down is lost when a dinosaur knocks over an opportunistic bridge. Scrambling now for survival among the brontos, stegs, triceratops (there is no cute abbreviation for such a word), and those “pests of the prehistoric world,” allosaurs, a volcano begins to go off. A rope ladder is sent up by their base support group, and they scramble down it to safety, even as our mystery ape tries to disrupt their escape, having the sorrowful news of the death of Maple White.
During this time, a bronto survives a fall into a lake at the base of the plateau (I believe my Arts Editor suggested it should have gone splat!), and Challenger arranges for its return to London. At unloading time, it breaks loose, and makes for the Thames, leaving Challenger with nothing but stories and an outraged populace. Meanwhile, Gladys has married (“he’s a clerk!”), leaving Malone free to marry Paula.
This was actually fun. The special effects are old-fashioned, but they’re surprisingly effective. I’d never think a bronto would go for the throat of a predator like an allosaur. The black and white in this version is leavened with various color washes. The dialog, on the traditional interleaved placards, is kept on the screen a pleasantly short amount of time, and if there’s no insightful theme, we still had a good time watching it.
