1925: The Lost World (40th!)

What else happened this year? 1925? I really struggled to think of anything. That was 'my struggle' - Mein Kampf was released, and so was the Great Gatsby. Two books which hint at the future.

What is the plot - in one sentence? A group of people look to prove a scientist right or wrong - he's laughed at for claiming he's found a 'lost world' filled with dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? They find a plateau which has plenty of them. They muck around there for a while, a couple fall in love, and then they all head back with one dinosaur, which rampages around London before setting off to sea (to drown surely, it can't swim that far). Amidst all the chaos, the couple get married, some reputations get restored, and it's a happy ending?

What is the meaning of the title? Pretty simple this one, it's a lost world that they find.

I found this allosaurus' legs to be needlessly provocative. This lockdown has gone on too long. 

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? No, but a solid proportion of the movie is reaction shots by the 'one woman' in the group - her father had go lost with the original scientists group. There's also 'ape-men' who are obviously in black face, and a white guy pretending to be an Indian slave, both of which lead to people shitting kittens today. Speaking of kittens, there's a scene where a stork is thrown on screen and looks really uncomfortable, it probably wouldn't happen today. Before we see dinosaurs, there are monkeys, parrots, crocodiles, bear cubs, and peccaries; but after they get to the top of the plateau, it's all stop motion animals except for a helpful monkey they 'befriend'.

Any thoughts? The notes on the 'lost world' are presented by the pretty daughter of a guy who went missing there. A team is dispatched to find him and that world, and it's led by a survivor of the same voyage. He's also the world's angriest man. He's shown to be absolutely psychotic, it seems that his fake beard seems to be itchy. He's declared a liar, is vindicated, but it's met with shrugs by the skeptics in the group because he's such a grouch. No wonder he's angry.

Anyway, this rushes along. After assembling the crew, they're on the Amazon after 25 minutes, and at 37 minutes, a pteranodon is there and dropping rocks on them. It's a lot of stop motion dinosaurs after then, and on the whole they're good.

Despite the unnecessary sexy legs of the allosaurus, the stop motion is entertaining. It's great for the time and also pretty violent. Necks are bitten, and others are gored with horns, in extended fights. I'm not joking when I say this is more entertaining than Kong Island fights, which are weightless and despite taking a huge amount of time and knowlege, never fully convince.

Anyway, after some dino-fighting, there's a volcano, they get free with the use of a monkey carrying a rope, they bump into some other explorers (of course) and are saved by a monkey they have enslaved to help them with a rope, they bring a dinosaur back, it all happens pretty quickly. It's a hell of a tale.

Would you recommend this? It was fun and not particularly taxing - a nice spectacular piece of entertainment. No problems there. It was much more entertaining than Kong Skull Island, despite looking like shit with hindsight it's got charm that Kong just doesn't have.

Final thoughts? There's a tacked on romance in there. A skeptical scientist who is there to prove the contrarian view, brings along a young man he's friends with for no reason stated. He's handsome, the one woman is pretty (in a 1920s kind of way), and before too long, they end up in a cave, where they have implied cave sex, and declare love for each other despite not talking before. There's a subtitle that basically says 'whatever happens on the plateau stays on the plateau,' but they marry at the movies end, which is nice for these fictional characters. Anyway, this is based off that book, which I may have to check out. I love adventure books from that era.

Here we go. 40 of these done, the other 39 are here. If you're reading this later on, there will be even more there, but this will still be 40th.

for the record, the version I watched was about 90 minutes long.