Product Description

Newly restored with fifty percent more footage than any version in seventy years, here is the model for "King Kong," "Jurassic Park" and "Godzilla." A world wide sensation when it opened on February 15, 1925, "The Lost World" is a story of living dinosaurs from the Jurassic age written by the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and starring a cast of stegosaurus, allosaurus, brontosaurus, triceratops, and pterodactyl under the technical direction of Willis H. O'Brien (King Kong, Mighty Joe Young) and a cast of actors under the direction of Harry O. Hoyt.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60491 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-04-03
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, Silent, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

Amazon.com
Every larger-than-life creature feature, from King Kong to Godzilla to Jurassic Park, owes a debt to the original Lost World, the granddaddy of giant monster movies. Based on an adventure fantasy by Arthur Conan Doyle, it's the story of a maverick scientist (Wallace Beery, under a bushy beard) who finds a land that time forgot on a plateau deep within the South American jungles and comes back to London with a captured brontosaur to prove it. His expedition includes Bessie Love, the daughter of an explorer who disappeared on the previous expedition, and big-game hunter Lewis Stone. The ostensible stars of the picture are all upstaged by Willis O'Brien's dinosaurs, simple models brought to life with primitive stop-motion animation. Hardly realistic by any measure, these pioneering special effects are still a sight to behold, especially the lumbering brontosaur (which receives the most care from O'Brien, both foraging in his jungle and rampaging through the streets of London).

The Lost World was truncated for rerelease in the 1930s and the original negative was subsequently lost. David Shepard meticulously "rebuilt" the film using material from eight different surviving prints from all over the world, cleaning and restoring along the way. The result, which is 50 percent longer than previously extant prints, is still not complete but closer than any version since its 1925 debut. The difference is not merely in restored scenes but in a rediscovered sense of grace in scenes filled out to their original detail and pace. The film moves and breathes once again like a silent film.

The disc features the choice of an original, modern score by the Alloy Orchestra and a classic orchestral score compiled and conducted by Robert Israel (both enjoyable and effective), 13 minutes of O'Brien's animation outtakes (including a couple of isolated frames that capture O'Brien manipulating his models), and rudimentary commentary by Arthur Conan Doyle historian Roy Pilot. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Fantastic job by Image makes The Lost World fully satisfying
I just finished watching Image's restored edition of the 1925 Lost World, prepared for DVD issue, but thankfully also released on very high quality VHS tape for luddites like me. This is one case where the VHS tape was not just an afterthought--the quality of the tape is exceptional, and mine had absolutely NO tracking problems, tape glitches, or audio dropouts whatsoever--something that has become all too rare these days.

This version restores many lost scenes and many lost parts of scenes, restoring much character development, as well as some truly-impressive dinosaur footage. Compared to previous abridged versions, this one runs over half an hour longer, thanks to footage from *eight* prints, especially a Czech print found in the 90's from which most of the lost scenes come from.

Anyway, I'm absolutely stunned by the quality of the film. It's never looked better, and for the very first time, it no longer seems like merely an important FX historical curiosity, but is now a fully satisfying adventure/fantasy film. The pacing no longer feels rushed, and Willis O'Brien's groudbreaking stop-motion and matte FX work is still simply amazing today. There's a restored dinosaur stampede and aftermath that features far more fully-articulated dinosaurs than anything in Jurassic Park. I am a fan of dinosaur films generally, and I can honestly say that in its restored form, the 1925 Lost World is simply the best dinosaur film I have ever seen.

The image looks fantastic for such an old film too, and the color-tinting is very intelligently used--blue for night, brown/sepia for indoor, green for jungle--but it never comes across as intrusive. The new percussion-heavy modern musical score (by the Alloy Orchestra) commissioned for this version may be a bit untraditional, but it fits the film perfectly.

The 12 min. of animation outtakes following the film were fascinating too, and helped to underscore how much detail and care went into the FX work on the film--there are some cool moments in the outtakes where freeze-frames actually show the animators at work in the frame.

Anyway, fantastic film, stunning restoration. You've never seen the 1925 Lost World like this until you've seen Image's restored edition--and this is one restoration you can safely buy on either DVD or VHS. A+

Journey to the original Lost World
This 1925 silent film still works as an involving, pretty exciting experience, not in just a "let's see how a dinosaur movie made in 1925 looks" kind of way. This Image Entertainment restored edition is definitely the DVD version to get, as it's about thirty minutes longer than the other editions on the market. I especially liked the epic shots of the dinosaur plateau in the distance; the creepy man/gorilla creature; and the nice views of London at the beginning and end. The dinosaur action is also impressive more than seventy-five years later, though I thought most of the dinosaurs were more cute than scary. Another nice touch is the long booklet included with the DVD; it's a reproduction of the original souvenir program given to patrons at the film's premiere. There are lots of other great extras to enjoy, too, including a choice of two musical tracks to accompany the film. Oh, yes, an excellent article about the various undertakings to restore this movie- including Image's efforts- appears in the 75th issue (dated Sept. 2001, I believe) of "Video Watchdog", a very good monthly digest about genre movies. After reading the article, I went out and picked up "The Lost World", and I'm happy I did.

Something missing from the Image release...
The Image Entertainment version is definitely the version of this movie to own on DVD. It is the most complete version available, about half an hour longer than any other version. Also, the picture looks great and real care was taken on the special features. Bravo. However, I would like to point one curiosity about this version. I have seen the truncated hour-long version several times before, and there is a difference in the final "Brontosaurus on the loose" scene. In the shorter, more common version, there is a scene where the Brontosaurus roars into the camera, followed by a shot of its tail, knocking over several people on the street. In Image's restored, extended version, these scenes do not appear, but are replaced with alternate, more subtle shots. First, the dinosaur snarls, then we get a shot of his tail knocking around a single body on the street. The scenes are similar, but different depending on which version of the film you're watching. I thought it strange to watch the restored version of this movie and not see two of the most famous shots. Strangely, they are also nowhere to be found in the special features. It is a slight omission, but one that I noticed right away. If you want to see those scenes, you'll have to get one of the shorter versions of the movie. Still, if you can only own one, I recommend the Image DVD. Overall, it is the most superior and complete version. Too bad it wasn't quite perfect.