THE LOST WORLD

The Lost World is to be considered in every way the predecessor and inspiration for the first King Kong film that was made 8 years later, including the special effects. Indeed, Willis O’Birn was responsible for the masterful stop-motion animation of the dinosaurs, which he later perfected when he worked on the King Kong film.

Harry O. Hoyt’s film, the forerunner of many dinosaur films such as Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World and Jurassik Park, tells the story of Professor Challenger (the veteran Wallace Beery), who believes he has discovered an island deep in the Americas, an island where several prehistoric creatures are still alive. One of his colleagues, Professor White, remains trapped on the island and so Challenger decides to launch a new expedition, hoping to bring back with him several of these creatures to show them to the general public. He succeeded and returned to London. But once in the English capital, the captured dinosaur manages to free itself from its chains and flees across the Thames…