Comparing The Lost World (1925) and King Kong (1933)

The Lost World is Willis O'Brien's first venture into feature length stop-motion animation.  He will of course create one of the most iconic "performances" on film in King Kong eight years later.  But I couldn't help but notice some eerie similarities between the films.  Did you notice:

1. Dinosaur Animation.  It's obvious, but both films feature Willis' stop-motion animation of dinosaurs.  The battles here are more abbreviated, but already the animator is imbuing his creations with personality.  See the brontosaurus' snarl as the allosaurus prepares to attack.

2. A driven self-promoter whose hubris becomes his undoing.  In The Lost World, Professor Challenger is obsessed with finding the dinosaurs to prove his value to the scientific community and then, when the opportunity presents itself, he brings one back home to London.  In King Kong, filmmaker Carl Denham is obsessed with showing the world this uncharted island, then decides to bring the ape back to New York.

3. Bringing large, untamed animals to populated areas is a bad idea.  Challenger's brontosaurus and Denham's Kong both run amuck in densely populated areas.  At least it ends better for the brontosaurus.

4. Monkeys love women.  One of the side stories in The Lost World is a monkey's devotion to our heroine Paula.  In King Kong, same thing but with a larger primate.

5. Walking across logs doesn't is not advisable.  When the fellowship in The Lost World crosses a log to enter the land of dinosaurs, one of the creatures knocks the log over, stranding the group.  In King Kong, our title ape removes a log bridging a chasm to attack the human invaders to his land.

6. Remote areas are ideal breeding grounds for monsters.  Skull Island and The Lost World's plateau both use natural elements to shield their unusual denizens from easy discovery by the outside world.

Did I miss anything?

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The Lost World (1925)

Directed by Harry O. Hoyt

Starring Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, and Bessie Love  Willis O'Brien's dinosaurs

Produced by First National Pictures

Professor Challenger has a problem.  He has traveled to the Amazon and is convinced that dinosaurs exist in the middle of uncharted territories.  No one believes him and the scientific community has made him a laughing stock.  Undeterred, he sets out to put together a new expedition to prove his findings.

Ed Malone also has a problem though his is both smaller and larger than Challenger's (after all, what's bigger than love?).  He doesn't have the eyes of the scientific community on him, but he does have Gladys.  He wants to marry her, but she puts him off.  She wants a man who has faced death and danger, and Malone's boring life as a journalist doesn't do it for her.

Malone hears of Challenger's expedition and offers to go.  He needs to prove his bravery to Gladys and maybe get the mother of all stories.  Challenger hates journalists, but agrees once Malone gets his newspaper to finance the trip.

Along for the adventure are Sir John Roxton (the famous game hunter), Professor Summerlee (one of Challenger's biggest skeptics) and Paula White.  We soon learn that the trip isn't just to reclaim Challenger's status, but also to rescue Paula's father who has been stranded on the plateau where the fierce creatures supposedly live.

Off we go on the adventure!  The group travels to the Amazon and soon comes to the plateau where Challenger's alleged dinosaurs reside.  They climb onto the plateau, but are immediately stranded there.  Will they find the fabled beasts and clear Challenger's name?  Or will they be foiled by a random, missing-link-looking guy (don't ask)?  Will Paula find her father?  And will Malone end up falling in love with the young Miss White over the course of their travels?

The Lost World has problems, serious problems, and believe me I will get there.  But first, we have to talk about what works.  

The dinosaurs.

The dinosaur portions as realized by animator Willis O'Brien are epic and gorgeous.  There is some choppy moments of animation, but the dinosaurs all have character in their movements and facial expressions that exceed even the humans (more on that later).  We have an allosaurus that attacks anything that moves.  A triceratops that protects its young.  A pterodactyl that... well, doesn't do much of anything.  And a brontosaurus that is docile unless threatened.

There are set pieces here that thrill.  The allosaurus' fight with the triceratops is fantastic.  The allosaurus' attack on the human's camp is thrilling if a bit too brief.  The dinosaurs' frantic escape from an erupting volcano near the end is exciting, but a bit disjointed.

Nothing however beats the climax.  Challenger and his crew bring a live brontosaurus back to London where things naturally go horribly wrong.  The brontosaurus rampages through the streets of the city knocking over buildings and ultimately collapsing the Tower bridge.  The animation is perfect as is the combination of the creature with the humans.

So what doesn't work?  Almost everything else.

The acting is pretty ham-fisted with the exception of Wallace Beery as Challenger.  He has one note to play, one cantankerous, arrogant note, but he nails it throughout.  The rest of the cast is bland.  When Lloyd Hughes as Malone calls Challenger to inform him the creature has escaped, he is almost emotionless.  No panic. No urgency.  He may have been going over a grocery list.

The romance between Malone and Paula almost came as a complete surprise.  They were the only main actors who seemed like they were under the age of forty, so naturally, they need to come together.  But when Malone professes his love, it's not based on anything we've seen.  Paula wisely points out that Malone has a girlfriend back home, while Malone retorts that as long as they are lost together, they can have each other.  This makes sense to Paula for some reason, but when they do escape from the plateau, they go their separate ways.  Malone back to Gladys and Paula to Roxton. 

How do Malone and Paula get together?  Turns out Gladys married while Malone was gone.  So Malone walks over to Paula and Roxton, the older man gives an "oh well" shrug and off the lovebirds go.  Silly.

The impetus for the adventure is to find Paula's father.  So naturally they find him... dead.  No real discussion about it.  Just a pile of bones and a picture of his daughter.  Again, it's unsatisfying.

There is a subplot involving a Neanderthal/missing link creature who keeps trying throw a monkeywrench into the travelers' plans.  The missing link himself is more Larry Talbot than Encino Man.  And it's not clear why he cares what is going on.  Or why he has a chimpanzee for a sidekick.

But really all this plot stuff is just a device to get us to the spectacle.  When The Lost World is dull, it is painful, but when it soars, it's epic.  

***1/2 out of *****

NOTES: Yes, that really is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introducing the film in the beginning.

I watched the Image cut of this which runs over 90 minutes.  Apparently, there are 30 minute and 60 minute versions out there.  

I'm pretty sure this is the origin story for the Loch Ness Monster.

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