The Lost World (Deluxe Blu-ray Edition) (Flicker Alley) [US]

[C.C. 95]

Release Date: September 12, 2017
Price & Link:
Flicker Alley - $29.95
Amazon- $34.99

Director: Harry O. Hoyt
Featuring: Wallace Beery, Bessie Love, Lewis Stone, Lloyd Hughes, and Arthur Hoyt.
Composer: Robert Israel
Year: 1925
Language: Silent with English Intertitles
Length: 110 minutes
Region: A, B, C

True to its title, the 1925, 10-reel version of The Lost World effectively disappeared from circulation in 1929—all known positive prints destroyed—a move by First National Pictures to help clear the way for another “creature film” utilizing special effects and Willis O’Brien’s cutting-edge animation techniques: King Kong. For more than 80 years, only abridged editions of The Lost World remained in existence… until now!

Follow Professor Challenger, played by the inimitable Wallace Beery, as he and a crew of curious explorers embark on an expedition in search of a mythical, prehistoric plateau in South America. Along for the adventure are eminent scientist Summerlee (Arthur Hoyt, the director’s brother), sportsman Sir John Roxton (Lewis Stone), journalist Ed Malone (Lloyd Hughes) and Paula White (Bessie Love), whose father disappeared on the same plateau. The party is not there long before the “lost world” of the jungle begins to reveal its secrets: a primitive ape-man, a Pterodactyl flying through the air, a massive Brontosaurus feeding upon the trees, the vicious Allosaurus, and many more monstrous beasts of the Jurassic age.

Flicker Alley, Lobster Films, and Blackhawk Films® are thrilled to present the world-premiere Blu-ray edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, the most complete version of the film ever released. This visually stunning 2K restoration, accomplished by Lobster Films, features newly-discovered scenes and special effect sequences, incorporating almost all original elements from archives and collections around the world. Renowned silent film composer Robert Israel contributes a new and ambitious score, performed by a full orchestra in 2016.

This edition is dedicated to David Shepard, and to the collectors, archives, and passionate cinema lovers, who help preserve films for future generations.

Bonus Materials Include:

• 
  
  • Audio Commentary: Feature-length audio essay by Nicolas Ciccone, amateur filmmaker and film historian.
  • Deleted Scenes: Restored outtakes from a 1925 original nitrate transfer of The Lost World.
  • R.F.D., 10,000 B.C. (1917): Short film directed by Willis O’Brien for producer Thomas Edison.
  • The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918): Short film written and directed by Willis O'Brien in a new 2K restoration by the Dinosaur Museum.
  • Creation (1930): Unfinished film directed by Willis O’Brien that nonetheless convinced Merian C. Cooper to hire O’Brien for King Kong.
  • Image Gallery: Featuring original production, exhibition, and promotional materials.
  • Booklet Essay: "The Lost World: Secrets of the Restoration” by Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films.

 

[C.C. 95]

BEFORE KING KONG: A LOST WORLD FOUND
by Leonard Maltin

Film buffs and aficionados of stop-motion animation have been frustrated for years because The Lost World, the 1925 feature that laid the groundwork for King Kong, has only existed in severely truncated prints. Even an ambitious restoration in the late 1990s had to make do without a number of key scenes. Now Lobster Film of Paris, in association with Blackhawk Films, has pulled off the near-impossible, with the participation of numerous archives and collectors around the globe—and it’s a joy to behold. The new Blu-ray from Flicker Alley even includes a jaw-dropping reel of outtakes showing technicians manipulating their dinosaur models!

Much of this is the result of hard work and persistence, but some of it must be chalked up to serendipity. Lobster’s Serge Bromberg stumbled onto the outtake reel at the Library of Congress, where it presumably resided for decades, and master preservationist Scott MacQueen (a lifelong Lost World buff) digitized it, thanks to a crowdfunding campaign. Scott also identified for me the man you see on camera animating a dinosaur: it’s not Willis O’Brien but J.L. Roop, who has an impressive history of his own in this field of animation. You can—and should—look him up on YouTube.

Another key participant was the late, great film archivist David Shepard, who toward the end of his life wrote a check to Robert Israel to create and perform an orchestral score for the movie. It’s quite good and I’m sure David would have been pleased.

I first encountered The Lost World in my teens when I got hooked on silent films and saved my money to buy an 8mm print. I didn’t care that much that the movie was originally much longer. I thoroughly enjoyed it and absorbed everything I could read about the man who made its prehistoric creatures come to life, Willis O’Brien. (Most of this was in Forrest J. Ackerman’s magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland.)

Another person who was obsessed by this tantalizing title was Samuel K. Rubin, founder and publisher of The 8mm Collector magazine, which lives on today as Classic Images. Sam checked out every print he could put his hands on, hoping to assemble the best possible copy. His greatest coup was acquiring a ten-minute reel issued on 8mm by Encyclopedia Britannica Films, which had access to a much clearer, cleaner print than any other home-movie dealer. (They issued it for the purpose of studying prehistoric life.) He lovingly spliced this footage into the body of his print, which he later sold to me when an even better version became available.

The Lost World is significant for a number of reasons. Based on a story by Arthur Conan Doyle, better known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, it established a template which has been used ever since—not only for King Kong in the 1930s but Jurassic Park in the 1990s and its more recent remakes and sequels. It is the foundation for an entire movie genre and its influence cannot be overstated.

Phil Tippett, who became a master of stop-motion (bringing to life the Imperial Walkers in The Empire Strikes Back, for instance), used to attend screenings of The Lost World at Forry Ackerman’s house when he was growing up. Similar stories abound: when Scott MacQueen arranged a screening of the late-1990s restoration on the Walt Disney studio lot, lifelong friends Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen were in attendance. Needless to say, Harryhausen was a Willis O’Brien admirer and later worked with the master on Mighty Joe Young.

The new disc from Flicker Alley has all the extras you would expect, including an example of O’Brien’s early short subjects (R.F.D. 10,000 B.C.), The Ghost of Slumber Mountain, the test reel called Creation that convinced producer Merian C. Cooper to proceed with King Kong, and more. I learned a great deal from Nicolas Ciccone’s highly informative commentary track, including details of Conan Doyle’s original story about the intrepid Professor Challenger (played in The Lost World by Wallace Beery) and how it differs from the film. He is also obliged to discuss the embarrassing presence of an actor in blackface playing one of the bearers in the search party and issuing unfunny dialogue—via title cards—in dialect.

An impressive number of silent films are making their way to DVD and Blu-ray right now, and I’ll be discussing them in future columns. But The Lost World is not just another movie: its restoration is a bona fide event, and to everyone who played a part in bringing it about I say “thank you.”

Spoiler

@bloodsnake007

 

[Felix_ro]

OMG! @C.C. 95 you're both a treasure and a treasure hunter!
Thanks for those!

Spoiler

Release Date: September 12, 2017
Price & Link:
Flicker Alley - $29.95
View attachment 336773
Director: Harry O. Hoyt
Featuring: Wallace Beery, Bessie Love, Lewis Stone, Lloyd Hughes, and Arthur Hoyt.
Composer: Robert Israel
Year: 1925
Language: Silent with English Intertitles
Length: 110 minutes
Region: A, B, C
View attachment 336775
True to its title, the 1925, 10-reel version of The Lost World effectively disappeared from circulation in 1929—all known positive prints destroyed—a move by First National Pictures to help clear the way for another “creature film” utilizing special effects and Willis O’Brien’s cutting-edge animation techniques: King Kong. For more than 80 years, only abridged editions of The Lost World remained in existence… until now!

Follow Professor Challenger, played by the inimitable Wallace Beery, as he and a crew of curious explorers embark on an expedition in search of a mythical, prehistoric plateau in South America. Along for the adventure are eminent scientist Summerlee (Arthur Hoyt, the director’s brother), sportsman Sir John Roxton (Lewis Stone), journalist Ed Malone (Lloyd Hughes) and Paula White (Bessie Love), whose father disappeared on the same plateau. The party is not there long before the “lost world” of the jungle begins to reveal its secrets: a primitive ape-man, a Pterodactyl flying through the air, a massive Brontosaurus feeding upon the trees, the vicious Allosaurus, and many more monstrous beasts of the Jurassic age.

Flicker Alley, Lobster Films, and Blackhawk Films® are thrilled to present the world-premiere Blu-ray edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, the most complete version of the film ever released. This visually stunning 2K restoration, accomplished by Lobster Films, features newly-discovered scenes and special effect sequences, incorporating almost all original elements from archives and collections around the world. Renowned silent film composer Robert Israel contributes a new and ambitious score, performed by a full orchestra in 2016.

This edition is dedicated to David Shepard, and to the collectors, archives, and passionate cinema lovers, who help preserve films for future generations.
View attachment 336774

Bonus Materials Include:

• 
  
  • Audio Commentary: Feature-length audio essay by Nicolas Ciccone, amateur filmmaker and film historian.
  • Deleted Scenes: Restored outtakes from a 1925 original nitrate transfer of The Lost World.
  • R.F.D., 10,000 B.C. (1917): Short film directed by Willis O’Brien for producer Thomas Edison.
  • The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918): Short film written and directed by Willis O'Brien in a new 2K restoration by the Dinosaur Museum.
  • Creation (1930): Unfinished film directed by Willis O’Brien that nonetheless convinced Merian C. Cooper to hire O’Brien for King Kong.
  • Image Gallery: Featuring original production, exhibition, and promotional materials.
  • Booklet Essay: "The Lost World: Secrets of the Restoration” by Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films.

Spoiler

BEFORE KING KONG: A LOST WORLD FOUND
by Leonard Maltin
View attachment 336776
Film buffs and aficionados of stop-motion animation have been frustrated for years because The Lost World, the 1925 feature that laid the groundwork for King Kong, has only existed in severely truncated prints. Even an ambitious restoration in the late 1990s had to make do without a number of key scenes. Now Lobster Film of Paris, in association with Blackhawk Films, has pulled off the near-impossible, with the participation of numerous archives and collectors around the globe—and it’s a joy to behold. The new Blu-ray from Flicker Alley even includes a jaw-dropping reel of outtakes showing technicians manipulating their dinosaur models!
View attachment 336777
Much of this is the result of hard work and persistence, but some of it must be chalked up to serendipity. Lobster’s Serge Bromberg stumbled onto the outtake reel at the Library of Congress, where it presumably resided for decades, and master preservationist Scott MacQueen (a lifelong Lost World buff) digitized it, thanks to a crowdfunding campaign. Scott also identified for me the man you see on camera animating a dinosaur: it’s not Willis O’Brien but J.L. Roop, who has an impressive history of his own in this field of animation. You can—and should—look him up on YouTube.

Another key participant was the late, great film archivist David Shepard, who toward the end of his life wrote a check to Robert Israel to create and perform an orchestral score for the movie. It’s quite good and I’m sure David would have been pleased.
View attachment 336778
I first encountered The Lost World in my teens when I got hooked on silent films and saved my money to buy an 8mm print. I didn’t care that much that the movie was originally much longer. I thoroughly enjoyed it and absorbed everything I could read about the man who made its prehistoric creatures come to life, Willis O’Brien. (Most of this was in Forrest J. Ackerman’s magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland.)

Another person who was obsessed by this tantalizing title was Samuel K. Rubin, founder and publisher of The 8mm Collector magazine, which lives on today as Classic Images. Sam checked out every print he could put his hands on, hoping to assemble the best possible copy. His greatest coup was acquiring a ten-minute reel issued on 8mm by Encyclopedia Britannica Films, which had access to a much clearer, cleaner print than any other home-movie dealer. (They issued it for the purpose of studying prehistoric life.) He lovingly spliced this footage into the body of his print, which he later sold to me when an even better version became available.

The Lost World is significant for a number of reasons. Based on a story by Arthur Conan Doyle, better known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, it established a template which has been used ever since—not only for King Kong in the 1930s but Jurassic Park in the 1990s and its more recent remakes and sequels. It is the foundation for an entire movie genre and its influence cannot be overstated.
View attachment 336779
Phil Tippett, who became a master of stop-motion (bringing to life the Imperial Walkers in The Empire Strikes Back, for instance), used to attend screenings of The Lost World at Forry Ackerman’s house when he was growing up. Similar stories abound: when Scott MacQueen arranged a screening of the late-1990s restoration on the Walt Disney studio lot, lifelong friends Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen were in attendance. Needless to say, Harryhausen was a Willis O’Brien admirer and later worked with the master on Mighty Joe Young.

The new disc from Flicker Alley has all the extras you would expect, including an example of O’Brien’s early short subjects (R.F.D. 10,000 B.C.), The Ghost of Slumber Mountain, the test reel called Creation that convinced producer Merian C. Cooper to proceed with King Kong, and more. I learned a great deal from Nicolas Ciccone’s highly informative commentary track, including details of Conan Doyle’s original story about the intrepid Professor Challenger (played in The Lost World by Wallace Beery) and how it differs from the film. He is also obliged to discuss the embarrassing presence of an actor in blackface playing one of the bearers in the search party and issuing unfunny dialogue—via title cards—in dialect.
View attachment 336780
An impressive number of silent films are making their way to DVD and Blu-ray right now, and I’ll be discussing them in future columns. But The Lost World is not just another movie: its restoration is a bona fide event, and to everyone who played a part in bringing it about I say “thank you.”

Spoiler

@bloodsnake007

 

[C.C. 95]

You bet!!
(I love classic film and film history. Also a Member of The George Eastman Society)
This release IS a real treasure!
I cannot wait to see the Willis O'Brian short films that led him to Lost World, King Kong, etc.
Along with the Arrow Ray Harryhausen box sets - it is really great month for the films of the early SFX pioneers!

 

[Felix_ro]

You bet!!
(I love classic film and film history. Also a Member of The George Eastman Society)
This release IS a real treasure!
I cannot wait to see the Willis O'Brian short films that led him to Lost World, King Kong, etc.
Along with the Arrow Ray Harryhausen box sets - it is really great month for the films of the early SFX pioneers!

Whow man, just WOW!
I didn’t even know that this kind of movies could be found even on DVD, needles to say on Blu-Ray.
And what can I say, you’re fortunate to live somewhere where you can actually develop such a hobby even career maybe. Glad for you!

 

[C.C. 95]

Whow man, just WOW!
I didn’t even know that this kind of movies could be found even on DVD, needles to say on Blu-Ray.
And what can I say, you’re fortunate to live somewhere where you can actually develop such a hobby even career maybe. Glad for you!

Just LUCKY. I just happen to live 4 hours from Rochester, NY where the Eastman Museum is.
Once I discovered their yearly Nitrate film festival, I became a regular attendee and eventually a member. It feels great to be a part of helping to Preserve and restore classic film.
(And seeing films on the original nitrate prints in the Eastman Kodak Dryden theater is like nothing else!)
Plus they have 35mm film print screenings all year long. Thinking about heading up there for a 35mm screening of Peter Weir's GALLIPOLI at the end of the month! (When Am I ever going to have the opportunity to see that on a 35mm print ever again?)

 

[Lollard2002]

Lucky devil!

 

[PunkNinja]

I need this.

 

[Felix_ro]

Again, OMG!
C.C. 95, PLEASE STOP making me so miserable and angry realizing I live in a such 798-rd world (not just 3-rd).
I wish that I had just those screenings once a month and would be SUPER GREAT, the other opportunities would be out of this word.

I’m so pissed now once again (if a lifetime was not enough yet) for my “luck”.

@C.C. 95 please don’t take this the wrong way, I clearly and definitely appreciate what you share with us!

Just LUCKY. I just happen to live 4 hours from Rochester, NY where the Eastman Museum is.
Once I discovered their yearly Nitrate film festival, I became a regular attendee and eventually a member. It feels great to be a part of helping to Preserve and restore classic film.
(And seeing films on the original nitrate prints in the Eastman Kodak Dryden theater is like nothing else!)
Plus they have 35mm film print screenings all year long. Thinking about heading up there for a 35mm screening of Peter Weir's GALLIPOLI at the end of the month! (When Am I ever going to have the opportunity to see that on a 35mm print ever again?)

 

[kryptonite]

 

[C.C. 95]

Again, OMG!
C.C. 95, PLEASE STOP making me so miserable and angry realizing I live in a such 798-rd world (not just 3-rd).
I wish that I had just those screenings once a month and would be SUPER GREAT, the other opportunities would be out of this word.

I’m so pissed now once again (if a lifetime was not enough yet) for my “luck”.

@C.C. 95 please don’t take this the wrong way, I clearly and definitely appreciate what you share with us!

You need to find out what kind of festivals are in your area. i know Romania has the TIFF festival, and the Balkans area has a bunch of other festivals. I know they have had Nitrate Film Festivals in Belgrade.
To be honest, I could have very easily not really known about the stuff going on around me if I didn't go looking for it!
https://basees.org/meet-the-postgra...n-the-balkans-report-june-july-2013-ana-grgic
http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=22390
http://tiff.ro/en/about-festival

 

[Felix_ro]

Sure, from "outside" it's looks that way, but I can assure you the reality here is quite different.
Nevertheless, thanks a lot for all the news, ideas and time put into those posts; keep them coming.

You need to find out what kind of festivals are in your area. i know Romania has the TIFF festival, and the Balkans area has a bunch of other festivals. I know they have had Nitrate Film Festivals in Belgrade.
To be honest, I could have very easily not really known about the stuff going on around me if I didn't go looking for it!
https://basees.org/meet-the-postgra...n-the-balkans-report-june-july-2013-ana-grgic
http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=22390
http://tiff.ro/en/about-festival

 

[C.C. 95]

Sure, from "outside" it's looks that way, but I can assure you the reality here is quite different.
Nevertheless, thanks a lot for all the news, ideas and time put into those posts; keep them coming.

That's why we love Criterion, Arrow, Masters of Cinema, etc. - so we can bring these classics home!!
(In the proper restored and beautiful versions!)
I watched the Criterion PLAYTIME a few weeks ago.
The blu ray tranfer was...

 

[paulboland]

Also available to purchase from Amazon USA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LTF6TN/?tag=hidefnin-20
$34.99

 

[C.C. 95]

Also available to purchase from Amazon USA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LTF6TN/?tag=hidefnin-20
$34.99

Thanks! OP updated.