Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
The Lost World (1925, dir. Harry O. Hoyt, adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle’s book), the silent fantasy epic that inspired King Kong, and ultimately Jurassic Park. In the film, Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) & his research team go on an expedition to authenticate his claims that a “lost world” of dinosaurs exists in the Brazilian jungle. Chaos, of the rampaging dinosaur variety, inevitably ensues. The team members manage to escape the island, but like many science-fiction movie characters to come, they have the brilliant idea of bringing a member of the dangerous species they’ve discovered back home with them as some kind of ill-tempered, homicidal souvenir. Luckily, too, as this opens the door for the terrific sequence in which the brontosaurus escapes and runs amuck through the streets of London. The film, the first live-action dinosaur adventure, is also notable for its groundbreaking special effects, courtesy of Willis O’Brien, the pioneering FX artist. The original trailer for the film can be seen here, the entire film is online at Internet Archive here.

The Lost World (1925, dir. Harry O. Hoyt, adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle’s book), the silent fantasy epic that inspired King Kong, and ultimately Jurassic Park.

In the film, Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) & his research team go on an expedition to authenticate his claims that a “lost world” of dinosaurs exists in the Brazilian jungle. Chaos, of the rampaging dinosaur variety, inevitably ensues.

The team members manage to escape the island, but like many science-fiction movie characters to come, they have the brilliant idea of bringing a member of the dangerous species they’ve discovered back home with them as some kind of ill-tempered, homicidal souvenir. Luckily, too, as this opens the door for the terrific sequence in which the brontosaurus escapes and runs amuck through the streets of London.

The film, the first live-action dinosaur adventure, is also notable for its groundbreaking special effects, courtesy of Willis O’Brien, the pioneering FX artist.

The original trailer for the film can be seen here, the entire film is online at Internet Archive here.

Basil Rathbone in publicity still for The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939, dir. Sidney Lanfield) “Like all other arts, the science of deduction and analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. Before turning to those moral and mental aspects of the matter which present the greatest difficulties, let the inquirer begin by mastering more elementary problems. Let him, on meeting a fellow-mortal, learn at a glance to distinguish the history of man, and the trade or profession to which he belongs. Puerile as such an exercise may seem, it sharpens the faculties of observation, and teaches one where to look and what to look for.” -Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet (1887)

Basil Rathbone in publicity still for The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939, dir. Sidney Lanfield)

“Like all other arts, the science of deduction and analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. Before turning to those moral and mental aspects of the matter which present the greatest difficulties, let the inquirer begin by mastering more elementary problems.

Let him, on meeting a fellow-mortal, learn at a glance to distinguish the history of man, and the trade or profession to which he belongs. Puerile as such an exercise may seem, it sharpens the faculties of observation, and teaches one where to look and what to look for.”

-Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet (1887)