The Lost World (movie 1925)
The Lost World is an American silent movie premiered on 8 february 1925 at the Astor Theatre (New York, USA) produced by First National Pictures starring Wallace Beery as Professor George Challenger. 68 minutes.
The movie is the first adaptation of the Conan Doyle's novel The Lost World. In the original version, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was introducing the movie with a 4 verse poem.
The story of the movie is quite eventful: the original movie was 90 minutes long. When Warner Brothers purchased First National Pictures, 30 minutes of the movie were cut. The new 60-minutes version was licensed to Kodascope Libraries. Thus, many sequences were removed: the introductory sequence with Gladys Hungerford (played by Alma Bennett) as the Malone's fiancée, the meeting of Challenger with the expedition team in South America, and several London scenes. In 1948, Encyclopedia Britannica purchased the 60-minutes movie and made further cuts resulting in another short version of 5-minutes long intended for English classrooms and retitled A Lost World, as Told by A. Conan Doyle. The short began in the drawing rooms of 1912 London with an actor portraying Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the 1990s, with the renewed interest about dinosaurs resulted in some spectacular new finds, and a restored version was released in 1991 by Lumivision Laserdisk, with some bonus (the movie trailer and a commercial for the Bob Sherman's' The Lost World Puzzle presented by Bessie Love herself... see videos below). In 1992 was discovered a nearly complete print of the full film in the Filmovy Archiv of the Czech Republic, and additional footage was uncovered in a pair of private collections and in the Library of Congress. This resulted to a new restoration in 1997 based on the original Marion Fairfax 1925 script by George Eastman House. Since they refused to release the completed version to home video, the silent film publisher David Shepard utilized the same materials as George Eastman House to compile and restore his own version of the film that was released on DVD by Image Entertainment in 2001. However, the George Eastman House version was released as a bonus of the 1960 remake with Claude Rains. Thus, there is currently two version of the movie:
- The David Shepard version: includes almost every scrap of film possible, but less smooth in the flow.
- The George Eastman House version: less parts but more edited for a better flow.
More details about the movie history.
Photos
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The Lost World -
Cast -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(1930 interview sequence added in the restoration) -
Professor Challenger
(Wallace Beery) -
Paula White
(Bessie Love) -
Ed Malone
(Lloyd Hughes) -
Gladys Hungerfor
(Alma Bennett) -
Mrs. Challenger
(Margaret McWade) -
Editor (?) & Lawyer (Nelson McDowell) -
Colin McArdle (left)
(George Bunny) -
Sir John Roxton
(Lewis Stone) -
Prof. Summerlee
(Arthur Hoyt) -
Prof. Summerlee with deerstalker
(Arthur Hoyt) -
Marquette
(Virginia Brown Faire) -
Austin
(Frank Finch Smiles) -
Zambo
(Jules Cowles) -
Apeman
(Bull Montana) -
Major Hibbard
(Charles Wellsley) -
Jocko the Monkey
(Himself) -
Angry Man (left)
(Holmes Herbert) -
Percy Potts
(Leo White) -
The Plateau -
Pterodactyl -
Brontosaurus -
Allosaurus -
Triceratops -
The brontosaurus in London -
The brontosaurus escapes via the Thames
- Photos published in The Lost World published by A. L. Burt (1925)
-
Prof. Challenger (Wallace Berry) and Prof. Summerlee (Arthur Hoyt) behold the death struggle between allosaurus and trachodon. (A First National Picture) -
Prof. Challenger (Wallace Berry) takes charge of the dangerous expedition up the Amazon. -
Another one of the professor's outbreaks. Paula White (Bessie Love), Sir John Roxton (Lewis Stone), Prof. Challenger (Wallace Berry), Edward Malone (Lloyd Hughes), and Prof. Summerlee (Arthur Hoyt). -
A midnight alarm awakens Paula White (Bessie Love), Sir John Roxton (Lewis Stone), Prof. Summerlee (Arthur Hoyt), and Prof. Challenger (Wallace Berry).
Lobby Cards
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Will you take me to the lost world to search for my father? -
Their first sight of a monster pterodactyl. -
Love ruled even in the lost world! -
The gigantic dinosaur loomed before them -
Posters
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The Lost World -
The Lost World -
The Lost World -
The Lost World (Harrisburg, PA, USA) -
En Försvunnen Värld (Sweden) -
The Lost World
Promotional
-
French Theatre (Caméo, 62 Bd des Italiens, Paris) customized with dinosaur decorations on the facade (june-september 1925). -
« The Lost World above the World » presented as the World's First Aircraft Cinema (13 april 1925).
Videos
Full Movie (92 min version)
Trailer
Commercial: The Lost World Puzzle
Cast
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself
- Prof. Challenger : Wallace Beery
- Paula White : Bessie Love
- Sir John Roxton : Lewis Stone
- Ed Malone : Lloyd Hughes
- Prof. Summerlee : Arthur Hoyt
- Gladys Hungerford : Alma Bennett
- Marquette : Virginia Brown Faire
- Mrs. Challenger : Margaret McWade
- Apeman : Bull Montana
- Austin : Frank Finch Smiles
- Zambo : Jules Cowles
- Colin McArdle : George Bunny
- Major Hibbard : Charles Wellsley
- Jocko the Monkey : Himself
Uncredited
- Angry Man at Meeting : Holmes Herbert
- Lawyer with Editor : Nelson McDowell
- Mr. Percy Potts : Leo White
Added in the 1948 "Lost World, As Told By A. Conan Doyle"
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : an actor playing Conan Doyle
Crew
- Director : Harry O. Hoyt
- Screenplay : Marion Fairfax
- Producer : Earl Hudson, by arrangement with Watterson R. Rothacker
- Cinematography : Arthur Edeson
- Set Decoration : Milton Menasco
- Film Editing : George McGuire
- Special Effects : Willis H. O'Brien
- Model Construction : Marcel Delgado, Ralph Hammeras
- Chief Technician : Fred W. Jackman
- Technician Staff : Homer Scott, J. Devereaux Jennings, Hans Koenekamp, Vernon L. Walker
Plot summary
The story mainly follows the original Conan Doyle's novel but with some modification, like the love story between Malone and Paula White... this daughter of Maple White doesn't exist in the novel. In the novel, Malone marry Gladys when he comes back from The Lost World. In the movie, Gladys changed his mind while Malone was in The Lost World and she married with a store clerk, Mr. Percy Potts, which has never been out of London !
