In a sense this is where
the Giant Monster genre began. The use of stop-motion for dinosaurs had never
been done as extensively as here. The man behind it ws Willis O'Brien who
had been experimenting with stop-motion on some shorts but this was a real
challenge - not just the stop-motion but integrating the images with live
action. O'Brien had various jobs as a young man, but he became interested
in dinosaurs and began to make models of them. And taking photos of them.
Inevitably, that led to the concept of stop-motion. The Lost World that is
based on a story by Arthur Conan Doyle was a great opportunity for O'Brien.
He did not go small. There are all sorts of dinosaurs - Pterodactyls, Brontosauruses,
Allosauruses, Tyrannosauruses - and they fight each other constantly. In
one scene when the volcano explodes, there are hordes of dinosaurs running
in the same frame. But in an amazing scene - for the time - they bring a
Brontosaurus back to London and it escapes. It rampages through the street,
destroying buildings, crowds panicking and running - Good Golly Godzilla.
The rest of the film is of little interest in comparison, but if you came
for the dinosaurs, you will leave happy. Doyle showed the film to friends
and told them the dinosaurs were real. No one had seen anything like this
before. One hundred years ago. Much has changed but basically the Giant Monster
films have stayed the same. Parts of the film have been lost, but there is
enough left to appreciate it. I just recently saw the 1960 version directed
by Irwin Allen and that one added a lot - a native tribe, a journey through
the fires in the caves, a white man gone blind, betrayals that this version
shuns. No idea what the book is like though I just downloaded it from Kindle
for free and might take a look.
This one is pretty basic. Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) claims that
there are live dinosaurs on a plateau deep into the Amazon. He is laughed
at by the audience but when he asks for volunteers to go back, Sir John Rothrock
(Lewis Stone - the future Judge Hardy), the journalist Ed Malone (Lloyd Hughes)
and the daughter of a man who explored the plateau before, played by Bessie
Love, say yes. Off they go and within a few minutes O'Brien's magic is everywhere.
Not a lot of drama - Rothrock loves the daughter, but she goes for the younger
reporter. Poor Judge Hardy but he accepts it with dignity just like the Judge
would. Jill St. John played that role very differently! There are also
actors made up to look sort of like apes. And then they think - why don't
we bring a live one back to London - great idea. O'Brien went on to do the
special effects of course for King Kong, also brought back to New York.
