The Lost World

The Lost World

The Lost World   Many of us are well aware of movies that come out and have the same name as a movie made at an earlier point in time. Some movies actually have this happen two or three times. These can be spaced apart by many decades or a matter of just a few weeks.  

‘The Lost World’ is one example of how they can be spaced apart by decades. There are several movies titled ‘The Lost World’, in my opinion they are all equally as good to watch. The first ‘Lost World’ (1925) is a black & white silent movie when non-talkie movies were the thing to enjoy. The 1925 film had Wallace Beery as professor Challenger.  

The second ‘Lost World’ movie came out in 1960 and had Claude Rains as professor Challenger, with Michael Rennie playing the part of Roxton. This version was in color and ran about 98 minutes in length.  

1993 another version of the film came out that ran about 99 minutes in length and the film was based upon Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel.  

1997 Steven Spielberg took part in the creation of yet another version of this film, ‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park’ which had a cast of dynamite actors which included Jeff Goldblum. This film ran about 129 minutes in length and was loaded with extremely brilliant special effects.  

Another later version was actually titled ‘Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s: The Lost World’. This film is an absolute ‘must see’ for anyone who calls themselves serious fans of these films. This version came out through A&E and the History Channel. Filmed in New Zealand and produced by Christopher Hall, this film comes alive with its brilliant color and stage sets. This version of the film ran about 125 minutes in length and had a ‘powerhouse’ cast of actors including Bob Haskins, James Fox, Tom Ward, Mathew Rhys, Elaine Cassidy, and of coarse Peter Falk. The animations of the animals in this version were absolutely realistic and perfectly scaled to the stage sets being used. Very, very real looking.  

These aren’t the only places where the film industry used the title ‘The Lost World’. The Steven Spielberg’s version had films that came out as ‘part 2’ and ‘part 3’, but as a series stemming from his version of the movie only.  

Additionally, ‘The Lost World’ also became a very popular television series too. The television series was independent from the motion picture films, but the theme was maintained as the same with only one twist. In the television series, it was a continuing quest to get off the plateau and return home. Similar to the way the castaways had their continuous quest to get off Gilligan’s Island. The television series of ‘The Lost World’ was popular and ran on America’s televisions for years and years. Today it still airs on some cable channels.  

Its possible there may be more versions of this movie in the future. If so, this only shows us this is a title that was a huge success. So much so, that people kept remaking this hit title over the last century.  

The next time we sit down and watch one of these ‘The Lost World’ titles, keep in mind how popular this title is, because it dates back almost a century to the year 1925 when the whole thing started as a black & white silent movie.   True entertainment, and truly worth watching!  

Reporter Joseph Toth  

Washington Micro Bank BBS