Extras: Alternative music score, Audio Commentary, Biography on Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, Photo Gallery, Reproduction of the Original Souvenir Program
Directors:
Harry O. Hoyt and Willis H. O'Brien
Video Producer:
Serge Bromberg and David Shepard
Screenplay:
Marion Fairfax
(based on the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Music:
Robert Israel and The Alloy Orchestra
Cast:
Paula White: Bessie Love
Sir John Roxton: Lewis Stone
Edward Malone: Lloyd Hughes
Professor George Challenger: Wallace Beery
Professor Summerlee: Arthur Hoyt
Gladys Hungerford: Alma Bennett
Marquette: Virginia Brown Fairei
Ape Man: Bull Montana
Zambo: Jules Cowles
Long before Spielberg diddled with dinosaurs in
Jurassic Park,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Lost World.
Backed up with stop-motion special effects that were state-of-the-art in their
day, it is the story of Professor George Challenger (Wallace Beery)
shouting his mouth off about the fact that the monsters do exist and he'll
prove it once and for all by taking Edward Malone (Lloyd Hughes) along
to the Brazillian jungle and rescue the father of Paula White (Bessie Love).
Of course, it's a ridiculous expedition in that Challenger has no idea of what
he's letting himself in for.
I stated above that all the dialogue is in English, but that's half-right as
there is no dialogue. Inbetween the silent action, backed up by a musical
score, everything stops occasionally to show a dialogue caption. Yes, it's
that old.
The following provides info about the restoration, courtesy of one of
the video's producers for this edition, David Shepard.
Our Eyes Have Seen Great Wonders Restoring The Lost World.
"The Lost World was a worldwide sensation when it opened early in 1925. Just as
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle incorporated the best palentological information of his
time in the 1912 novel of living dinosaurs from the Jurassic age, so Willis H.
O'Brien and his colleagues achieved stunning realism based upon information
then available, brining the prehistoric creatures to life. Thanks to the
dinosaurs, The Lost World remained one of the most admired and best-remembered
films of the 1920's, eclipsing even the astounding precedental model animation
of Ladislas Starewicz.
By 1929, however, silent films were obsolete and the owners of The Lost World
agreed to withdraw it from distribution in favour of a possible sound remake;
all known prints and export negatives of alternative "takes" were destroyed.
The remake appeared as the celebrated King Kong in 1933, while the forgotten
domestic negative of the Lost World apparently decomposed and was discarded in
the late 1940's.
Fortunately, however, fragments of the silent film did remain: for a few years
beginning in 1929, Eastman Kodak released a 16mm home movie abridgment slightly
less than an hour in length through its Kodascope libraries while its
educational department, Eastman Teaching Films, offered fifteen minute of
excerpts edited as an instructional film on prehistoric life. Collectors
preserved the original trailer and a demonstration reel of the dinosaurs shown
in 1925 to the society of Motion Picture Engineers. All of these would still
have would still have added little to the home movie version but, miraculously,
a worn but photographically beautiful version but 35mm print of the Czech version
was preserved in Prague. Although it, too, is only about an hour long, it contains
a selection of scenes different from the American abridgement, and it was
immediately clear that combining these elements would result in a much longer
film which, although still missing bits and pieces, contains all of the most
important scenes and a substantially complete story.
The first reconstruction of the Lost World was undertaken by the George
Eastman house, an international museum of photography in Rochester New York.
The present version was made independently of Eastman House and following
somewhat different principles of reconstruction. Eight original source prints
were provided from various private collections and through the kindness of the
film archive of the Czech Republic. All elements were digitally mastered to
video using the most sophisticated current techniques to clean the images and
minimize scratches and other abrasions. On an American AVID non-linear digital
editing system, editor Mathieu Duboscq compared the available versions of
every shot and rebuilt the film using flexible criteria such as shot length
and condition, photographic quality, and content (which sometimes varied
between the domestic and export versions).
Mathieu, co-producer Serge Bromberg and I then shaped and tilted up the final
film, guided by the 1929 American abridgement with its original titles, the
1925 printed music score and timings, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's wonderful novel,
and the 1924 production script (which however, varied substantially from the
film as photographed and released). Our final selection of shots was then given
further digital repair to eliminate splice lines, punch marks and other
conspicuous defects. All titles were made in facsimile of the original typography,
speed adjustments were made to some of the shots, and the entire film was
carefully tinted in the style of the period. Our desire was to make a smooth
and entertaining film, as true as possible to the vanished original, but free
of obvious remainders that the project had been patched together from fragments.
Our final thoughts echoed Doyle's own when he wrote that "in humble and
thankful mood, I close this account. Our eyes have seen great wonders, and each
in his own way is a better and deeper man". And The Lost World is back to
thrill a new generation."
The Tory leadership contest gets a new contender.
It won't surprise anyone to learn that the film is presented in its original
fullscreen ratio. I've only given the picture quality half marks because
compared to how a film could look when made today it does fall short, but
to criticise it like that would be to miss the point of the restoration.
Rest assured that it looks exactly as you'd expect it to.
The average bitrate is 6.13Mb/s, briefly peaking over 8Mb/s.
There are two audio soundtracks in stereo on here. One being the traditional
music accompaniment by Robert Israel and the alternative being by The
Alloy Orchestra.
The extras contain a 12-minute piece of scrolling text that provides info
about the film as well as, in part, a Biography on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Another 12-minute extra is a series of animation outtakes which are rather a
work-in-progress. A feature-length Audio Commentary is provided by
Roy Pilot, author of "The Annotated Lost World".
A Photo Gallery of the "dino-stars" with 12 pictures, culminating in an
extra one of the Original Souvenir Programme.
The disc contains 19 chapters, but no subtitles. The menus are subtly
animated with part of the score in the background.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
