Plot

Explorer Professor Challenger claims that living dinosaurs exist in the far reaches of the Amazon. Newspaper reporter Edward Malone learns that this claim originates from a diary given to him by fellow explorer Maple White's daughter, Paula. Malone's paper funds an expedition to rescue Maple White, who has been marooned at the top of a high plateau. Joined by renowned hunter John Roxton, and others, the group goes to South America, where they do indeed find a plateau inhabited by pre-historic creatures. This adaptation was directed by Harry O. Hoyt and features pioneering stop motion special effects by Willis O'Brien (an invaluable warmup for his work on the original King Kong directed by Merian C. Cooper). This version has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

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Customer Comments

• Reviewer: anonymous on 24-Jul-2006

  The Lost World is a 1920s silent film telling the tale of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic of the same name. Professor Challenger assembles a crew to visit the depths of the Amazon in search of a mysterious plateau, (which was discovered by the father of one of the adventures), where dinosaurs and other primitive creatures dwell, untouched by civilization for millions of years. They search for any clues of the adventures father and observe the creatures of the plateau. The main highlight of this film is the clay animation dinosaurs, which were impressive for its time. For a silent film the movie is entertaining with lots of action. Also the movie is not particularly long so it doesn’t get stale or tiresome like some other silent films around its time. This film would probably be enjoyed by anyone who is familiar with The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and by anyone who is interested in clay animation monsters, or dinosaurs.

• Reviewer: anonymous on 29-Jan-2008

  superb movie

• Reviewer: silent fan on 02-May-2008

  This film is valuable historically as the precursor to King Kong in its plot and use of stop motion animation. It's also fun to watch with some good acting--especially from Beery, Love, and Hughes. However, it is described as being 100 minutes in length--which would be the restored version. When I downloaded the film, I found to my disappointment that it was the truncated 68 minute copy. While one still can enjoy the interesting animation, the plot is badly garbled and at least one member of the cast is completely cut out. Still, it remains a bargain and if the longer version is unavailable this one will do.

Additional Information

• Country: United States
• Language: English
• Format: NTSC
• Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (standard TV)
• Color: black and white
• Sound: 2 channel