Mark Leeper
2004-02-03 21:27:44 UTC
Six Lost Worlds:
The Dramatic Adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Novel
(A film article by Mark R. Leeper)
Imagine a place so isolated from the world that it was beyond the reach
even of the forces of evolution. On one plateau deep in the remote
Amazon rain forest there is a land that has withstood the ravages of
time. Here dinosaurs and prehistoric proto-humans still live.
In 1960 I remember being enthralled with the publicity for the upcoming
film THE LOST WORLD. I was nine years old and anything that had to do
with dinosaurs was okay with me. I had only recently seen the 1959
version of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH and loved it. But only
three sequences in the film had dinosaurs. (Okay, to be literal, there
are no dinosaurs in that film, but at nine I was not ready to make
zoological distinctions.) The Sunday comics had ads telling a little
teasing bit of the story of an expedition to a plateau with dinosaurs.
I was hooked. I guess I still am.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes series of
stories, also had a science fiction and fantasy series featuring short,
wide, and blustery Professor George Edward Challenger. The stocky
scientist was first introduced in his 1912 novel THE LOST WORLD. For
this tale Doyle saw the dramatic possibilities of humans interacting
with live dinosaurs. He told an irresistible story of an Amazon plateau
so isolated that evolution had passed it by and where the dragons of the
past still reigned supreme. There are two more novels with the same set
of adventurers, though they are not nearly as interesting or famous.
THE POISON BELT is about the earth traveling through a field of
poisonous ether gas. THE LAND OF MIST is a plea for tolerance for a
spiritualist church. Two shorter stories have Challenger opposing an
inventor who has created a terrible weapon in "The Disintegration
Machine," and discovering the Earth is a living organism in "When the
Earth Screamed." Doyle is said to have preferred writing Challenger
stories to stories about Sherlock Holmes, though the latter undeniably
had greater popularity and perhaps were better written.
The publicity I was seeing in 1960 was for the second of what at this
writing are six screen adaptations of the novel. In this article I will
review each of the six adaptations of Doyle's novel to the screen. In
doing so I face certain problems. First, the earliest version is
incomplete. I will have to review what is available, a restored version
of 92 minutes. A more widespread problem is that is in my opinion none
of the adaptations has been satisfactorily accurate to the novel. Every
one of them takes at least one woman along and Doyle did not have a
woman on the plateau in the novel. Each adaptation does a lot of
inventing as if there was something wrong with Doyle's story. There
really is not. If I like a version, it really is mostly in comparison
to the other renditions that may not be as good.
THE LOST WORLD (1925)
The 1925 version had much of the story more faithful to the novel than
any of the later film versions, though some incidents occur out of
order. One revision is that in the book Challenger brought back only a
pterodactyl, and it escapes before it is seen by more than a roomful of
people. The 1925 silent film version apparently thought it would be
more dramatic to have the animal brought back be a brontosaurus and it
does quite a bit of damage when it escapes. This would show off
imaginatively the stop-motion animation.
The 1925 film version was the first feature-length film to use
stop-motion animation to any great degree. The technician who created
the effects was a young Willis O'Brien, who would later be in charge of
the effects of KING KONG (1933). In fact, though O'Brien did not
contribute the plot to KING KONG, it has strong similarities to THE LOST
WORLD, with the animal brought back to civilization being a very large ape.
This first and arguably thel' for the second , a silent film. However,
for years it has been nearly impossible to tell with any assurance much
about the 1925 version of THE LOST WORLD. There are four or five
different versions of this film. Until relatively recently only an
edited version a little over an hour has been available. This was much
chopped down from the original film. Recently a 93-minute version has
become available to the general public on DVD. Reportedly the original
release was 104 minutes so only about 11 minutes of the original
theatrical release are still missing. However, that is the released
version.
Sadly, it is impossible to see at this point what the released film was
really like. Production stills shown on the Turner Classic Movie cable
channel seem to indicate that there was a great deal more of Doyle's
plot that was shot than could possibly fit into the missing eleven
minutes. Some sequences that look like they would have not only
lengthened the film but made it more faithful to the published story.
The stills include the "stool of penance" scene from the novel in which
Challenger used as a most politically incorrect way to punish his wife.
Also there is indication that as with the original novel Challenger
was not chosen as one of the members of the expedition and he uses
trickery to join the party after they are on their way. This plot was
in the Doyle and was apparently filmed for the si lent version and then
probably edited out. (Of the adaptations covered in this article only
the 1992 television version and the "Alien Voices" audio version are
faithful to the book in this regard.) So while even the 93-minute
version indicates large liberties taken from the novel, there were
probably sequences shot that could have made for a fairly accurate
version that perhaps never came together.
I personally recommend this 93-minute version as being more entertaining
than the 63-minute version that has been available. The shorter version
has just the minimal story needed to connect up the special effects
shots. The longer editing makes the expedition seems less slapdash and
makes the film feel more like a ripping adventure story. The shorter
editing has the background story be little more than a frame for the
dinosaur sequences. That audiences would settle for that is a testament
to the popularity that the Willis O'Brien's dinosaur sequences had with
audiences.
It is hard to gauge the impact that these sequences must have had since
so little like them had been seen on the screen before. Many of the
viewers assumed that the dinosaurs were full-scale mechanical creations,
and a few were naive enough to believe they were seeing real live
dinosaurs. It is hard to believe from the jerky effects, the best
possible at the time, that people took them for real. But in fact there
were some who did. While the film was in production Marion Fairfax, who
wrote the screenplay, thought she would reassure special effects
technician O'Brien and told him that if the effects did not work out,
the dinosaurs could easily be removed from her screenplay. It is hard
to imagine how popular a film they could a made without the attraction
of the dinosaur effects.
The variations in plot from the novel are relatively small changes of
little consequence until the travelers arrive at the plateau. Perhaps
the biggest change was the addition of a love interest for M alone to go
with him on the expedition. This is Paula White, daughter of plateau
discoverer Maple White, played by Bessie Love. After the crew gets to
the plateau the story diverges somewhat more. The novel talks of two
tribes of humans. One are half-human Neanderthal sorts, the others are
like modern Indians. Doyle spends much of the plateau story of how the
modern Indians beat the half-men, proving the superiority of modern man.
Frankly, for me this plot is not as interesting as the
dinosaur-related plotting. In this 1925 version of the film the two
tribes are reduced to one ape man, played by a man with the unlikely
name Bull Montana. Montana specialized in playing apes and half-men in
the movies. Without particularly good looks he had found his niche
playing ape- men. The filmmakers had only one half-man actor so the
story more concentrates on dinosaurs. Probably that is not a bad thing.
Even at the time the dinosaurs were more intriguing to audiences than
a man in an ape costume, however lurid.
Some additional liberties are taken. The zoological meeting takes place
before Malone visits Challenger's home. The escape route from the
plateau is destroyed by a dinosaur rather than by Gomez. The most
memorable variation, and one that would inspire other films, is that
instead of bringing back a pterodactyl, Challenger returns with a
brontosaurus who then escapes and wreaks havoc in London. This popular
sequence probably inspired films like KING KONG; THE BEAST FROM 20,000
FATHOMS; and BEHEMOTH, THE SEA MONSTER (a.k.a. THE GIANT BEHEMOTH).
I have read a review that said that Willis O'Brien's special effects
have still rarely been matched. That comment was well- intended but I
think that Willis O'Brien would be among the first to deny it himself.
While these effects were a big step forward from O'Brien's previous
work, he would do better work for KING KONG in 1933. O'Brien's protege
Ray Harryhausen furthered the art a great deal more. O'Brien would
probably have been ecstatic to see the JURASSIC PARK films, and perhaps
none more than THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK II, which I see as in part
a tribute to him and his contributions. Some of the sequences, like a
stampede of dinosaurs, are not technically perfect but are ambitious
beyond belief for a film this early.
O'Brien was, at the time he made THE LOST WORLD, still having some
problems with the smooth fluid movement of the figures he was animating.
He also has a tendency to make the creatures of too large a scale. An
example is the pterodactyl that seems much too massive in comparison to
the spur of the plateau. O'Brien would similarly exaggerate the size of
his stegosaurus in KING KONG. Some of his matte scenes, static and
traveling, combining images of actors and dinosaurs are well ahead of
their time. While O'Brien never let the humans get too close to the
dinosaurs, they impressively give scale to the giant beasts. There is
one scene in which the humans throw a flaming piece of wood in a
dinosaur's mouth. This could not use stop-motion since there is no
effective way to animate a flame frame-by-frame. For this effect a
hand-puppet seems to have been used.
The acting is sufficient but spotty. Wallace Beery makes the best
Challenger of any of the screen versions. He is sufficiently gruff and
pushy. Bessie Love as Paula is not so good and her main talent seems to
be that she can look frightened well. Arthur Hoyt's Summerlee is almost
unnoticeable. One barely remembers scenes he was in. Lloyd Hughes is
bland as Edward Malone and reminds the viewer of Harold Lloyd. Lord
John Roxton is played by Lewis Stone, who later would play dignified
roles like Captain Smollet in the 1934 TREASURE ISLAND and Judge Hardy
in the Andy Hardy series. Stone makes an imposing Roxton if not a very
interesting one. He seems almost too dignified to be the great hunter.
Unless one counts films like KING KONG, UNKNOWN ISLAND, THE LAND
UNKNOWN, or TWO LOST WORLDS, all of which arguably took some inspiration
from the Doyle, the next real film version of THE LOST WORLD was
released in summer of 1960 with Claude Rains as Challenger.
THE LOST WORLD (1960)
The 1960 version of THE LOST WORLD was the first version I ever saw, not
too surprising for anyone of the Baby Boomer generation. Most critics
think that it is a totally ugly dog. I can sympathize with that point
of view, but do not agree. It certainly is a giant step down from the
1925 version. But in the context of a 1960 film, it comes off a bit
better. The 1950s had several gaudy adventure films of much the same
style, films like RUN FOR THE SUN. In years to come the same sort of
film would be a special effects extravaganza, but in the 1950s
filmmakers would use real settings.
Infusing a little bit of science fiction into that formula is a welcome
variation. One can almost reconcile oneself to the film in that context
but then one remembers how badly the "dinosaur" effects are created.
And there is Frosty the Poodle. The film just has its good and more than
its share of bad moments.
The 1960 version of THE LOST WORLD, directed by Irwin Allen (who also
produced and co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Bennett), boasted the
name of Willis O'Brien as "effects technician." Sadly the dinosaur
effects were created by the later illegal practice of using live
lizards, perhaps enhancing their looks by pasting horns or plates on
them, and then having them fight other such lizards. It was cruel to
the animals and only the least discerning audiences could suspend
disbelief and think of these things as dinosaurs. Part of what makes
dinosaurs dinosaurs is that they stand straight upon their legs the way
an elephant does. Lizards have legs that go out to the side. Dinosaur
bodies can support more weight because their legs are like columns under
them for support. The previous year lizards were used to good effect in
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH to simulate Dimetrodons. However,
Dimetrodons were not lizards and not dinosaurs.
This version is not a very good rendering of the story, in spite of
introducing color to the adaptations. It nonetheless was my
introduction to Doyle's story and as such it has fond memories for me.
Rains is too thin to play the barrel-chested discoverer, but otherwise
he is not too bad at playing Challenger. He has the personality
approximately right. His acting is the best thing about this
adaptation. On the other hand, choosing comic actor Richard Hayden as
Summerlee was a fiasco. His performance grates on one's nerves whenever
he is on the screen. He acts as if he is in some other movie. Michael
Rennie makes a decent Roxton. He has the self-assured quality that
Doyle would have appreciated. David Hedison is a little old to play
Edward Malone and have the sort of boyish enthusiasm and insecurities
that Doyle gave that character.
Irwin Allen updates the story to roughly 1960. The film opens with
Challenger returning from the Amazon to report his discoveries of live
dinosaurs on a plateau of South America. With Challenger's traditional
hatred of reporters he clouts Ed Malone trying to interview him. Malone
is pulled from the ground by Jennifer Holmes (Jill St. John), the
daughter of his publisher.
At the geographic society Challenger reports having seen dinosaurs. The
skeptical audience suggests a return visit to verify his findings. In
return for funding, Challenger is saddled with a reporter on the
expedition, Malone. He also gets Professor Summerlee and big game
hunter Lord John Roxton. At a stop in South America the expedition
picks up two local guides, pilot Manuel Gomez (Fernando Lamas) and
lackey Costa (Jay Novello). (Manuel and Gomez are two different
characters in the novel.) Also joining the expedition more or less by
blackmail are Jennifer and her brother David (Ray Stricklyn) as well as
a poodle named Frosty. The siblings are no invention of Doyle, but the
choice of the name Holmes is likely an allusion to Doyle.
The expedition takes a helicopter to the plateau, getting magnificent
views from overhead. They land on the plateau but see no sign of
dinosaurs. That night they hear a large beast in their vicinity,
terrorizing them. They soon find their helicopter was crushed and
kicked over the side of the cliff. We get a glimpse of a large lizard
with a neck frill. Challenger identifies it as a brontosaurus, but what
we saw did not look anything like a brontosaurus. In any case the
explorers find they are now stranded on the plateau. The next day they
are menaced by man-eating plants and more dinosaurs. One of the latter
splits up the group and Malone and Challenger as one subgroup find a
native girl. Malone follows her and finds her, even at the cost of
running through the web of a four-foot-wide tarantula spider.
Malone brings her to camp where only Roxton recognizes that capturing
her could mean trouble from the rest of her tribe. Relations are about
to degenerate into a fistfight when Roxton finds a strange diary. It
was kept by Burton (not Maple) White who discovered the plateau in
partnership with Roxton. White's diary says he is waiting for Roxton to
rescue him and that he is looking for legendary diamonds. Roxton was
part of that team, but let the others down. He never came for them. Now
he has come again with Challenger, but with the motive of looking for
the diamonds. Jennifer is deeply disappointed in the man she was hoping
to catch.
David tries to comfort the native girl and in the process discovers that
she knows how to use a rifle. He is about to tell the others when the
group is attacked. The native girl escapes and Malone follows her. The
reporter loses her and returning through the forest finds Jennifer. The
two are making their way back to camp when they find themselves in the
paths of two fighting dinosaurs. They must hide as the two titans
fight. This is a rather sadistic piece of footage when one sees that
these are live lizards pitted against each other. Eventually the
dinosaurs fall over the side of the plateau.
Jennifer and Mallone return to camp finding it empty. They realize that
the others have been captured. In moments they find that they are also
prisoners of the natives. Taken to the native city they find
drum-beating ceremonies in progress. They are reunited with their
fellow captive explorers.
Just when they realize they are to be eaten the native girl comes along
to rescue David. With a little effort she is convinced to help the
whole group escape. He takes them to find a blind Burton White (Ian
Wolfe). White tells them there is a path thought the plateau to the
base. How it got there in a volcanic plateau is hard to understand.
Why would lava take such a path? But the expedition takes this path
past deadly people-grabbing tendrils and a graveyard of dead dinosaurs.
The entire plateau is starting to erupt and explode. They expedition
uses fire to keep back the pursuing natives. They find the diamonds,
but also more trouble and another dinosaur. As they leave the plateau
blows itself to pieces.
This version invents its own subplots, but which version does not? The
script is not great, but it would have made for at least a good
adventure film had the dinosaurs looked like dinosaurs.
For those in the audience who would recognize Willis O'Brien's name in
the credits listed as "effect technician." He was reportedly asked his
opinion of the possibility of lizard special effects and told the
producers how bad those effects were. They paid him for his opinion,
ignored it, and put his name in the credits. That probably was the plan
from the beginning. The film had moments, but overall was not very good.
The plot is confused with a previous expedition that was bungled, a
treasure hunt for diamonds, and a revenge plot. Perhaps the capper of
mistakes was to have the woman expedition member bring a poodle. There
is no adventure film so exciting that it cannot be ruined by the
presence of a poodle. The Disney film THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE
WORLD made the same grievous error. Perhaps it was supposed to be a
counterpoint of Gertrude the Duck of the previous year's far superior
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, also from Fox. However, while the
duck worked well, Frosty the poodle served only to demonstrate how silly
this expedition was. With the exception of the dog, the writing is not
really bad--it just fails to be very interesting. It might be best
appreciated if one just does not look at the screen once the expedition
reaches the plateau.
With all its faults, at least this film does not talk down to its
audience and does not have the juvenile feel of the 1992 and 1999
versions. It has a sort of empty, Technicolor, wide-screen, 1950s feel.
The plateau never looked so good as seen from above at a distance.
This was a bad and disappointing version of the Doyle, but it would
neither be the last such, nor would it be the worst. Irwin Allen was
aiming for an adult audience while relying on a teenage crowd (not
unlike the soon to begin Bond series). The next version would wait
thirty-two years, just three years short of the interval between the
silent and first sound version. And the new version was definitely made
with a younger audience in mind.
THE LOST WORLD (1992)
The 1992 version of THE LOST WORLD, a Canadian production directed by
Timothy Bond (who previously directed episodes for the television series
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "War of the Worlds") and written
and co-produced by Harry Alan Towers. The film is shot in Zimbabwe and
apparently was made together or in tandem with a sequel, RETURN TO THE
LOST WORLD. To accommodate this location the plateau is moved from
South America to Africa. The transplant gives the story a sort of H.
Rider Haggard feel that would be okay, but it is not Doyle.
Towers's script starts reasonably faithful to the Doyle but quickly
shows its loyalties are more to sending (condescending) politically
correct messages than to the text by Doyle. Male chauvinists everywhere
are given a come-uppance by a strong female on the expedition. Because
the script is already being written on a juvenile level, a boy is added
to the expedition to give children someone to identify with.
As in the book, Malone (Edward McCormack) passes himself off to
Challenger (John Rhys-Davies) as a scientist, but he does not have the
knowledge to maintain the ruse. Malone is, incidentally, made a
Canadian to give the Canadian audience a one of their own to care about.
Challenger attacks Malone, the police intervene, and Malone endears
himself to Challenger by choosing not to press charges. The forming of
the expedition is pretty much like in the manner of the novel though
they end up with woman reporter Jenny Nielson (Tamara Gorksu) and a
twelve-ish boy Jim (Darren Peter Mercer). The character of Roxton has
been eliminated and there is no equivalent. As in the book but few film
versions it is decided that it is Summerlee (David Warner) who will lead
the expedition and Challenger will remain behind. Not to worry,
Rhys-Davies is too big a star to not be included in the expedition.
More invented characters come along. On the way the expedition is
joined by a female Noble Savage in a revealing two-piece outfit. She is
Malu (Nathania Stanford) and can be counted on to have politically
correct thinking as everybody raised in the bush would have. Also along
is the nasty Gomez (Geza Kovacs). One more piece that harks from the
book--in the end the expedition brings back to London a pterodactyl,
though the story of the pterodactyl is somewhat different from Doyle's tale.
The reporter Jenny Nielson appears inspired by the real person Nellie
Bly. She is a slightly aggressive feminist. On the other hand John
Rhys-Davies makes a passable Challenger in stature and temperament. He
is, after his earliest scenes and though he feuds with Summerlee, less
strident and more boyishly likable than in the Doyle.
The choice to do the film in a didactic and juvenile fashion that makes
it a very bad disappointment after a start that is at least decent. The
dinosaurs were rubbery and cute with rough edges rounded off and so was
the writing. The script looks for every politically correct lesson that
can be wrung from the plot. Doyle, of course, had no women on the
expedition. The first two film versions each had one woman along. This
version has two attractive women and a plucky youngster. Things are
going downhill.
I will not say much about the sequel, RETURN TO THE LOST WORLD. It is
not an adaptation of the Doyle, but only inspired by it. The story
involves European entrepreneurs who want to exploit the petroleum in the
no longer lost world and the team returns to the plateau to protect it.
It is not the most original or engaging story and did not really need
this particular prehistoric land to tell its story. The sequel
certainly underscored that Maple White Land was a noble and wondrous
world that needed to be preserved. The 1998 version had a very
different attitude toward Maple White's mysterious land.
THE LOST WORLD (1998) a.k.a. SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE'S THE LOST WORLD
Six years after the Canadian production of THE LOST WORLD, the story was
again adapted in the United States with some unusual variations. Even
the title was modified. Following the films BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA and
MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN, it became popular to include the original
author's name in the title of films based on classics. It somehow
promised that the content fidelity to the original work. BRAM STOKER'S
DRACULA added a love interest for Dracula that Bram Stoker would not
have recognized, and MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN had Victor bringing his
bride back from the dead in precisely the way that the character in the
book did not. Still, it was popular for a while to put the author's
name in the title. Hence in two years we have two different films
titled SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE'S THE LOST WORLD. This is the first. To
make things even more confusing the two versions each has the same actor
playing Summerlee. It must take a lot of explanation on his resume that
these really are different films. This film proves its loyalty (or lack
thereof) to the original text by starting in Mongolia, of all places.
The 1998 film opens with Maple White finding a pterodactyl egg and
paying for it with his life. He lives long enough to pass his notebook
and other interesting evidence to his traveling companion and partner G.
E. Challenger (Patrick Bergin, who does not look anything like Doyle's
Challenger). When Challenger returns to London with his claims that
dinosaurs exist, showing notebooks as his evidence, as usual in
adaptations he is met with skepticism and is offered the means for an
expedition. Amanda White (Jayne Heitmeyer) recognizes her father's
notebooks and insists on being part of the expedition. Mr. Summerlee is
ambivalent about being asked to go on the expedition, but after a moment
agrees. Unique in this version, Summerlee is actually a fairly decent
and interesting character and one the audience cares for. Michael
Sinelnikoff makes a very acceptable if not highly memorable Summerlee.
He does such a good job that in the unrelated production the following
year he repeated the role, though that part was not as well written. He
is, I believe, the only actor to repeat a role in two unconnected
productions of THE LOST WORLD. He also plays the role in the "Lost
World" television series, of which I will say more later. John Roxton
(David Nerman) is demoted from being the book's English lord to being an
obnoxious American hunter who later proves to be of villainous intent.
Arthur (!) Malone the reporter also joins the expedition played by an
unmemorable Julian Casey. Bergin's Challenger gets along neither with
Summerlee nor Roxton, though the audience likes Roxton considerably less.
Using several conveyances of the period, which seems to be the 1930s or
so, the crew makes its way to Mongolia and the plateau out of time. The
final step involves a helium balloon to ascend the plateau as a sort of
getaway after the team has just rescued Ms. White. (Note that Doyle
used a balloon for descent at the end of the novel.) In the best
traditions of KING KONG she had been kidnapped by natives and stretched
out on a rack. Having just been rescued and ascending to a land of
vicious dinosaurs, Amanda White literally found herself between a rack
and a hard place. And a hard place, the plateau is. The travelers find
their land of dinosaurs--particularly vicious dinosaurs--and two warring
tribes. One of the tribes are Neanderthals one more modern. In the end
of an uncomfortable stay only Challenger and White make it out alive,
though Malone is left behind on plateau like an Edgar Rice Burroughs hero.
We initially see a "brontosaurus" with some features that are wrong for
the animal. Perhaps some effect artist tried to get creative. However,
it turns out that the inaccuracy is a feature, not a bug. With hundreds
of millions of years of evolution. it appears dinosaurs have diverged
from those in the fossil record. Other adaptations have implied that
once you got to know this plateau it was a groovy place to be. Perhaps
one of the best touches of this version is that definitely is NOT the
case in this adaptation. This is probably the goriest adaptation, and
the plateau is a painful and dangerous place to be. Perhaps inspired by
JURASSIC PARK this film has the meanest and most nasty dinosaurs of any
version. The dinosaur effects seem to be in large part digital, though
perhaps some mechanical effects were used also.
Making up a little for deficiencies in the writing the film has a
terrific look. The art direction by Sylvain Gingras has an antique
Indiana Jones tone. Several interesting vehicles are used to bring the
explorers to Maple White land, especially a sort of half-track bus.
While the transplantation from a South American jungle to snowy Mongolia
seems all wrong, it is not a bad setting for an adventure story. It is
reminiscent RKO setting their SHE (1935) in Tibet rather than Africa.
In the end, with Malone marooned in Maple White Land as a sort of
Robinson Crusoe with dinosaurs, it is expected his adventures might
continue. This is a touch borrowed from Edgar Rice Burroughs. No sequel
was made. However, someone in Canada had a very similar idea. Why not
have a TV series set on the plateau? So nearly at the same time
Canadian producers made their own version of the story, but handled it
as a TV pilot and sold an entire TV series on the premise.
THE LOST WORLD (1999) a.k.a. SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE'S THE LOST WORLD
Richard Franklin directed the 1999 version of THE LOST WORLD as a
two-hour (minus commercials) pilot for the Canadian TV series of the
same name. In fact the series sold and apparently ran in Canada and the
United States. I was less than pleased with the pilot, which was very
much of a television quality.
The setup is only vaguely correct and the people never do get off the
plateau because then we would not have a continuing television series,
would we? The focus is not even on the characters that Doyle created.
They are lessened in importance compared to new strong (female) characters.
After an action prolog in which we see a man attacked by something big
in a jungle, presumably a dinosaur. He finds tall, handsome explorer
Challenger (Peter McCauley, very unlike Doyle's version). He dies in his
camp, but not before he leaves Challenger his journal and photo
negatives of pterodactyls. Challenger returns to London with tales of
this lost world that he has not visited. He tells the geographic
society of his discovery. They are skeptical, but suggest a special
expedition. There are the usual three volunteers: Ned Malone (William
deVry), Lord John Roxton (William Snow, a Pierce Brosnan look- alike),
and Dr. Summerlee (Michael Sinelnikoff). Michael Sinelnikoff, as I
said, also played Summerlee in the American version the previous year.
In that he was a major character. Here, though he plays the same role,
he has a lot less acting to do.
In one more variance from the book, Challenger seems to have no enmity
toward Malone. When the question of who will fund the expedition arises
a mysterious and beautiful woman steps forward, Marguerite Krux (played
by Rachel Blakely) and volunteers on the proviso that she can come on
the expedition. Krux irritatingly has attitudes of 1999 and not at all
of 1912. She complains about museums of "dead things." She wears brief
outfits in the jungle. They nicely show off her cleavage but would be
roughly the equivalent of ringing a flying insect dinner bell. She also
seems to like skinny-dipping. The Victorian Doyle would probably have
been scandalized by this adaptation of his book.
The group travels to the rain forest. Along the way they survive an
attack by headhunters. They also survive the crash landing of the
balloon they brought for their ascent onto the plateau. The landing of
the balloon is never shown, probably as an economy measure. (The credit
sequence shows the splintered piece of plateau that is the way the
explorers in the book get onto the main plateau. The film never
actually uses that entrance, choosing a perhaps more visual balloon ascent.)
On the plateau the explorers find Veronica, a Sheena-like jungle girl
clad in a brief leather two-piece. She also is an abundant source of
cleavage and is the last survivor of a previous expedition that included
her parents. She has grown up on the plateau, and she lives in a
fantastic tree house beyond anything Tarzan imagined. It even has an
elevator.
The characters are not well developed. Roxton proves to be a likable
bounder. The other males are bland and uninteresting. Krux would be a
character of some interest if she were a little less 1999 and more 1912.
The special effects are generally indifferently executed and there is
not much real interaction between humans and dinosaurs. The large beasts
are seen most frequently from distance. The prehistoric animals are an
audience attraction, but they are a background detail that rarely fits
into the plot. In fact, before the dinosaurs are first seen by the
expedition, nobody even thinks to ask Veronica if there are dinosaurs on
the plateau or not. The actual purpose of the expedition just never
comes up. Now that is really relegates the dinosaurs to the background
and concentrates more on the ape-men. Of course, Doyle did much the
same. The effects might have been good if seen in Willis O'Brien's day
but are really not up to 1990s standards. The images of the beasts are
just never really integrated into scenes with people and frequently
there are bad matte lines. When a pterodactyl grabs Roxton and carries
him off the lizard undulates in air with the wing-beats, but Roxton
remains rigid.
This version is more just a castaway story than a serious adaptation of
Doyle's book. It is reminiscent of the old children's program "The Land
of the Lost." The pilot is less interested in telling Doyle's story as
in setting up the television series.
This brings us to the television series. Episodes I have seen have not
been very interesting and not very faithful to the Doyle. They seem to
freely move into the area of fantasy and have a lot of female flesh.
Some of the writing is painfully bad. While searching for a way off the
plateau the trapped explorers find what Challenger calls an "ocean"--on
the plateau. He wants to find a sea route off the plateau. How exactly
does he think that would work? How do you have an ocean lapping at the
top of a plateau?
But even while this "sci-fi" series was being produced techniques for
creating animal images on film improved. And Doyle's story was, as
always, the perfect showcase for the new effects. So two years later
the story was filmed a sixth time.
THE LOST WORLD (2001)
It is not like previous decade had not had several adaptations of Arthur
Conan Doyle's THE LOST WORLD. But after the BBC finished their "Walking
with Dinosaurs" with very realistic-looking effects, I suspected that
the next natural thing to do with this technology for creating lifelike
dinosaurs was to juxtapose them with humans. No respectable non-fiction
presentation could do that. One would have to do a story in which
humans interface closely with the dinosaurs. There is only one classic,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's THE LOST WORLD. (Note: JOURNEY TO THE CENTER
OF THE EARTH does have humans in viewing distance of an ichthyosaur
fighting a plesiosaur, but these are not really dinosaurs and it is only
one sequence.) So once again the Doyle was adapted.
The BBC, in cooperation with the A&E cable network, brought us a new
version about 165 minutes long. The special effects combine CGI and
full-scale models to give us state of the art visuals and dinosaur
images that look realistic and fit our current paleontological knowledge.
This was, at least to my taste, the best version of the story we are
likely to get for a while. Willis O'Brien who created the effects for
the 1925 THE LOST WORLD and then was heartbroken when lizards were used
in the 1960 version of the film would have been very pleased to see this
version. Doyle might have been a little less pleased with the liberties
taken with the plot. But still it was done on a relatively intelligent
level.
Bob Hoskins takes a turn playing Challenger, a scientist with the
reputation for being a crackpot. He outdoes himself when he claims that
on his last expedition to South America he found a remote place where
dinosaurs still live. The Royal Society is skeptical but fits out an
expedition of four led by Challenger and the bland intellectual
Summerlee (Edward Fox this time), a skeptic who has no patience for
Challenger's claims or eccentricities. There is also game hunter Lord
Roxton (Tom Ward) and news reporter Edward Malone (Matthew Rhys). The
expedition finds the plateau where Challenger saw the dinosaurs all
right, but their means of exit is destroyed in a way closer than usual
to the Doyle, though still somewhat revisionist. They have to face the
now all-too-real dinosaurs that Challenger reported seeing.
None of the cinematic versions of the novel have been really faithful.
The newest version only roughly follows the Doyle and creates two new
major characters. Agnes Clooney, raised in the jungle near the site of
the plateau has lived in the jungle all her life and will act as a guide
at the plateau. Theo Kerr (Peter Falk) is her uncle, a Bible-thumping
missionary at odds with Summerlee over the issue of Creationism and
Evolution. This is a more intelligent revision than in previous
versions, but one wonders why it is always found necessary to revise the
Doyle plot.
While the triangle of Challenger, Summerlee, and Kerr contest science, a
romantic triangle of Clooney, Roxton, and Malone sprouts. The novel is
"revised" throughout. In the novel, Challenger is the most irascible
character with a reputation for violence against newspaper reporters
like Malone. Hoskins loses this dimension and seems to be the most
pleasant and amiable of the expedition members. The story starts as
great fun, though in the last hour the writing is disappointingly
pedestrian.
Among the modifications from the Doyle is the effort to humanize the
sub-human ape men on the plateau. In the book they were cruel killers
who entertained themselves dropping their enemies over cliffs. That
aspect was considerably toned down for this television version. This is
the longest version yet made so there is more emphasis on South American
color than there was even in the novel.
The special effects are certainly what sets this version apart from
previous cinematic adaptations of the novel. Still, the dinosaurs,
while more real-looking than previous version, are not quite integrated
with the people. When we see an entire dinosaur, requiring CGI, it
cannot quite interact with the people matted into the scene. It was much
like early Ray Harryhausen rarely had the creatures he created
interacting directly with people. When need be, he could have cowboys
lasso a dinosaur, but such effects were used sparingly and it showed.
In this LOST WORLD we see even less such interaction. People will be
chased by a dinosaur that looks realistic, but on a different plane from
the people. What does that mean? It is hard to describe.
Admittedly, in the 1950s it was very easy to describe what was wrong
with the special effects of a film. In the 21st century complaints with
the special effects are more abstract and harder to explain. But some
limitations are still obvious to the eye.
This is probably the best version of THE LOST WORLD since the 1925
version. It will probably be a while until a better version of THE LOST
WORLD is made.
Summary
Sadly after the one reasonably good film version in 1925, there are no
satisfying versions of Doyle novel. All versions have been too anxious
to introduce new characters, frequently love interests. And some try to
make political points. This is just not a novel that has been treated
very well in its film adaptations. Ordering them best to worst,
identifying them with the person playing Challenger and the year I would
say:
1. Wallace Beery 1925
2. Bob Hoskins 2001
3. Patrick Bergin 1998
4. Claude Rains 1960
5. John Rhys-Davies 1992
6. Peter McCauley 1999
It should be noted that the 1997 film THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK is
based, albeit loosely, on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name.
Nothing that I have ever seen has ever connected it with the Doyle's THE
LOST WORLD. I nevertheless notice that there are several plot parallels
to film versions of THE LOST WORLD. One man claims there is an isolated
place in South America where dinosaurs can be found. There is an
expedition to find the place. After a struggle against the dinosaurs,
one is brought back to a modern city where it escapes and goes on a
rampage. It is hard for me to not see this as a sort of tribute or
homage to the film versions of the Doyle.
There have also been audio versions of the story. Unfortunately, I do
not know of where any but one are available. BBC Radio did productions
of the story in 1938, 1944, 1949, 1952, 1958, and 1975. I have not heard
these versions, nor would I know even where to search for them. Any
pointers from readers to where to find these or other adaptations would
be welcome. I have heard an audio-book abridgment read by James Mason.
He was chosen, no doubt, because of his association with two classic
films based on more classic science fiction books, TWENTY THOUSAND
LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, albeit
books by Jules Verne not Arthur Conan Doyle. The one audio
dramatization I have heard was not one I had much hope for and it was
about what I expected.
ALIEN VOICES: THE LOST WORLD (1996)
"Alien Voices" is an audio theater company specializing in science
fiction stories. It is built around three actors associated with three
different series of STAR TREK. The actors are Leonard Nimoy (formerly
Spock), John de Lancie (Q), and Armin Shimerman (Quark). "Alien Voices"
seems frequently also associated with the cable Sci-Fi Channel. The
drama group seems to specialize in doing the classic science fiction
stories from the likes of H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Arthur Conan Doyle.
There are a number of faults built into any "Alien Voices" production.
The first is that the three actors are overly familiar and overly
associated in other roles. They also have characteristic voices. That
makes it almost impossible to lose them in their character. Through
ego, I suspect, they don't want to be lost in the roles either. One
does not have Lord John Roxton as a character so much as John de Lancie
DOING Lord John Roxton as the character. The acting is uniformly weak.
They use their own voices rather than using dramatic tricks to change
them and at the same time other actors are exaggerating accents
unrealistically. Thus the actors and scriptwriter make very clear that
they do not take the material seriously and they do not expect the
audience to do so either. It is supposed to be all in good fun, but it
makes it very hard to appreciate the stories. In any case the length of
the stories is on the order of forty-five minutes, which it really not
enough time to do justice to the novels they are adapting and too much
time is spent on the humor. In addition, what is there is not faithful
to the novels. That is not uncommon in dramatic adaptations, but they
take particularly large liberties. In the case of THE LOST WORLD,
Summerlee is a woman and becomes a love interest for Edward Malone.
There are little sexual double entendres and other references that the
Victorian Doyle would never have wanted in a novel intended as wholesome
entertainment for "the boy who's half man or the man who's half boy."
The story is told as the newspaper editor McArdle (Leonard Nimoy with no
effort to sound Scottish) reading dispatches from Edward Malone. Just
how these dispatches are supposed to get to London from the top of the
plateau is unclear, but in this version not a lot of time is spent
actually on the plateau. That part of the story, what should be the
shank, is much abbreviated. In fact, there are only two encounters with
dinosaurs on the plateau. While that part has a few of the essentials
from the novel, it is the least compelling sequence of the
dramatization. That may be because the virtues of that part of the
story are mostly visual.
In any case this adaptation is at best half-hearted and of all the
versions in covered in this article, it is the one least likely to
capture the imagination of a young new-comer.
There has never been a fully satisfying adaptation of Doyle's novel.
After a span of ten years in which there were four cinematic versions,
it seems unlikely there will be another one for a while. However, that
was what I would have thought after three adaptations and we got still
one more. As special effect technology improves, the fascination that
virtually everybody has with dinosaurs, will lead more people to try to
render them realistically on the screen. Then they will want to put
them in adventure stories. Some of Edgar Rice Burroughs is a
possibility. But really there is only one major classic adventure story
with dinosaurs. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it in 1912. It's THE LOST
WORLD.
(Thanks to ***@artimation.com for comments and proofing.)
Copyright Mark Leeper, 2003
The Dramatic Adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Novel
(A film article by Mark R. Leeper)
Imagine a place so isolated from the world that it was beyond the reach
even of the forces of evolution. On one plateau deep in the remote
Amazon rain forest there is a land that has withstood the ravages of
time. Here dinosaurs and prehistoric proto-humans still live.
In 1960 I remember being enthralled with the publicity for the upcoming
film THE LOST WORLD. I was nine years old and anything that had to do
with dinosaurs was okay with me. I had only recently seen the 1959
version of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH and loved it. But only
three sequences in the film had dinosaurs. (Okay, to be literal, there
are no dinosaurs in that film, but at nine I was not ready to make
zoological distinctions.) The Sunday comics had ads telling a little
teasing bit of the story of an expedition to a plateau with dinosaurs.
I was hooked. I guess I still am.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes series of
stories, also had a science fiction and fantasy series featuring short,
wide, and blustery Professor George Edward Challenger. The stocky
scientist was first introduced in his 1912 novel THE LOST WORLD. For
this tale Doyle saw the dramatic possibilities of humans interacting
with live dinosaurs. He told an irresistible story of an Amazon plateau
so isolated that evolution had passed it by and where the dragons of the
past still reigned supreme. There are two more novels with the same set
of adventurers, though they are not nearly as interesting or famous.
THE POISON BELT is about the earth traveling through a field of
poisonous ether gas. THE LAND OF MIST is a plea for tolerance for a
spiritualist church. Two shorter stories have Challenger opposing an
inventor who has created a terrible weapon in "The Disintegration
Machine," and discovering the Earth is a living organism in "When the
Earth Screamed." Doyle is said to have preferred writing Challenger
stories to stories about Sherlock Holmes, though the latter undeniably
had greater popularity and perhaps were better written.
The publicity I was seeing in 1960 was for the second of what at this
writing are six screen adaptations of the novel. In this article I will
review each of the six adaptations of Doyle's novel to the screen. In
doing so I face certain problems. First, the earliest version is
incomplete. I will have to review what is available, a restored version
of 92 minutes. A more widespread problem is that is in my opinion none
of the adaptations has been satisfactorily accurate to the novel. Every
one of them takes at least one woman along and Doyle did not have a
woman on the plateau in the novel. Each adaptation does a lot of
inventing as if there was something wrong with Doyle's story. There
really is not. If I like a version, it really is mostly in comparison
to the other renditions that may not be as good.
THE LOST WORLD (1925)
The 1925 version had much of the story more faithful to the novel than
any of the later film versions, though some incidents occur out of
order. One revision is that in the book Challenger brought back only a
pterodactyl, and it escapes before it is seen by more than a roomful of
people. The 1925 silent film version apparently thought it would be
more dramatic to have the animal brought back be a brontosaurus and it
does quite a bit of damage when it escapes. This would show off
imaginatively the stop-motion animation.
The 1925 film version was the first feature-length film to use
stop-motion animation to any great degree. The technician who created
the effects was a young Willis O'Brien, who would later be in charge of
the effects of KING KONG (1933). In fact, though O'Brien did not
contribute the plot to KING KONG, it has strong similarities to THE LOST
WORLD, with the animal brought back to civilization being a very large ape.
This first and arguably thel' for the second , a silent film. However,
for years it has been nearly impossible to tell with any assurance much
about the 1925 version of THE LOST WORLD. There are four or five
different versions of this film. Until relatively recently only an
edited version a little over an hour has been available. This was much
chopped down from the original film. Recently a 93-minute version has
become available to the general public on DVD. Reportedly the original
release was 104 minutes so only about 11 minutes of the original
theatrical release are still missing. However, that is the released
version.
Sadly, it is impossible to see at this point what the released film was
really like. Production stills shown on the Turner Classic Movie cable
channel seem to indicate that there was a great deal more of Doyle's
plot that was shot than could possibly fit into the missing eleven
minutes. Some sequences that look like they would have not only
lengthened the film but made it more faithful to the published story.
The stills include the "stool of penance" scene from the novel in which
Challenger used as a most politically incorrect way to punish his wife.
Also there is indication that as with the original novel Challenger
was not chosen as one of the members of the expedition and he uses
trickery to join the party after they are on their way. This plot was
in the Doyle and was apparently filmed for the si lent version and then
probably edited out. (Of the adaptations covered in this article only
the 1992 television version and the "Alien Voices" audio version are
faithful to the book in this regard.) So while even the 93-minute
version indicates large liberties taken from the novel, there were
probably sequences shot that could have made for a fairly accurate
version that perhaps never came together.
I personally recommend this 93-minute version as being more entertaining
than the 63-minute version that has been available. The shorter version
has just the minimal story needed to connect up the special effects
shots. The longer editing makes the expedition seems less slapdash and
makes the film feel more like a ripping adventure story. The shorter
editing has the background story be little more than a frame for the
dinosaur sequences. That audiences would settle for that is a testament
to the popularity that the Willis O'Brien's dinosaur sequences had with
audiences.
It is hard to gauge the impact that these sequences must have had since
so little like them had been seen on the screen before. Many of the
viewers assumed that the dinosaurs were full-scale mechanical creations,
and a few were naive enough to believe they were seeing real live
dinosaurs. It is hard to believe from the jerky effects, the best
possible at the time, that people took them for real. But in fact there
were some who did. While the film was in production Marion Fairfax, who
wrote the screenplay, thought she would reassure special effects
technician O'Brien and told him that if the effects did not work out,
the dinosaurs could easily be removed from her screenplay. It is hard
to imagine how popular a film they could a made without the attraction
of the dinosaur effects.
The variations in plot from the novel are relatively small changes of
little consequence until the travelers arrive at the plateau. Perhaps
the biggest change was the addition of a love interest for M alone to go
with him on the expedition. This is Paula White, daughter of plateau
discoverer Maple White, played by Bessie Love. After the crew gets to
the plateau the story diverges somewhat more. The novel talks of two
tribes of humans. One are half-human Neanderthal sorts, the others are
like modern Indians. Doyle spends much of the plateau story of how the
modern Indians beat the half-men, proving the superiority of modern man.
Frankly, for me this plot is not as interesting as the
dinosaur-related plotting. In this 1925 version of the film the two
tribes are reduced to one ape man, played by a man with the unlikely
name Bull Montana. Montana specialized in playing apes and half-men in
the movies. Without particularly good looks he had found his niche
playing ape- men. The filmmakers had only one half-man actor so the
story more concentrates on dinosaurs. Probably that is not a bad thing.
Even at the time the dinosaurs were more intriguing to audiences than
a man in an ape costume, however lurid.
Some additional liberties are taken. The zoological meeting takes place
before Malone visits Challenger's home. The escape route from the
plateau is destroyed by a dinosaur rather than by Gomez. The most
memorable variation, and one that would inspire other films, is that
instead of bringing back a pterodactyl, Challenger returns with a
brontosaurus who then escapes and wreaks havoc in London. This popular
sequence probably inspired films like KING KONG; THE BEAST FROM 20,000
FATHOMS; and BEHEMOTH, THE SEA MONSTER (a.k.a. THE GIANT BEHEMOTH).
I have read a review that said that Willis O'Brien's special effects
have still rarely been matched. That comment was well- intended but I
think that Willis O'Brien would be among the first to deny it himself.
While these effects were a big step forward from O'Brien's previous
work, he would do better work for KING KONG in 1933. O'Brien's protege
Ray Harryhausen furthered the art a great deal more. O'Brien would
probably have been ecstatic to see the JURASSIC PARK films, and perhaps
none more than THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK II, which I see as in part
a tribute to him and his contributions. Some of the sequences, like a
stampede of dinosaurs, are not technically perfect but are ambitious
beyond belief for a film this early.
O'Brien was, at the time he made THE LOST WORLD, still having some
problems with the smooth fluid movement of the figures he was animating.
He also has a tendency to make the creatures of too large a scale. An
example is the pterodactyl that seems much too massive in comparison to
the spur of the plateau. O'Brien would similarly exaggerate the size of
his stegosaurus in KING KONG. Some of his matte scenes, static and
traveling, combining images of actors and dinosaurs are well ahead of
their time. While O'Brien never let the humans get too close to the
dinosaurs, they impressively give scale to the giant beasts. There is
one scene in which the humans throw a flaming piece of wood in a
dinosaur's mouth. This could not use stop-motion since there is no
effective way to animate a flame frame-by-frame. For this effect a
hand-puppet seems to have been used.
The acting is sufficient but spotty. Wallace Beery makes the best
Challenger of any of the screen versions. He is sufficiently gruff and
pushy. Bessie Love as Paula is not so good and her main talent seems to
be that she can look frightened well. Arthur Hoyt's Summerlee is almost
unnoticeable. One barely remembers scenes he was in. Lloyd Hughes is
bland as Edward Malone and reminds the viewer of Harold Lloyd. Lord
John Roxton is played by Lewis Stone, who later would play dignified
roles like Captain Smollet in the 1934 TREASURE ISLAND and Judge Hardy
in the Andy Hardy series. Stone makes an imposing Roxton if not a very
interesting one. He seems almost too dignified to be the great hunter.
Unless one counts films like KING KONG, UNKNOWN ISLAND, THE LAND
UNKNOWN, or TWO LOST WORLDS, all of which arguably took some inspiration
from the Doyle, the next real film version of THE LOST WORLD was
released in summer of 1960 with Claude Rains as Challenger.
THE LOST WORLD (1960)
The 1960 version of THE LOST WORLD was the first version I ever saw, not
too surprising for anyone of the Baby Boomer generation. Most critics
think that it is a totally ugly dog. I can sympathize with that point
of view, but do not agree. It certainly is a giant step down from the
1925 version. But in the context of a 1960 film, it comes off a bit
better. The 1950s had several gaudy adventure films of much the same
style, films like RUN FOR THE SUN. In years to come the same sort of
film would be a special effects extravaganza, but in the 1950s
filmmakers would use real settings.
Infusing a little bit of science fiction into that formula is a welcome
variation. One can almost reconcile oneself to the film in that context
but then one remembers how badly the "dinosaur" effects are created.
And there is Frosty the Poodle. The film just has its good and more than
its share of bad moments.
The 1960 version of THE LOST WORLD, directed by Irwin Allen (who also
produced and co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Bennett), boasted the
name of Willis O'Brien as "effects technician." Sadly the dinosaur
effects were created by the later illegal practice of using live
lizards, perhaps enhancing their looks by pasting horns or plates on
them, and then having them fight other such lizards. It was cruel to
the animals and only the least discerning audiences could suspend
disbelief and think of these things as dinosaurs. Part of what makes
dinosaurs dinosaurs is that they stand straight upon their legs the way
an elephant does. Lizards have legs that go out to the side. Dinosaur
bodies can support more weight because their legs are like columns under
them for support. The previous year lizards were used to good effect in
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH to simulate Dimetrodons. However,
Dimetrodons were not lizards and not dinosaurs.
This version is not a very good rendering of the story, in spite of
introducing color to the adaptations. It nonetheless was my
introduction to Doyle's story and as such it has fond memories for me.
Rains is too thin to play the barrel-chested discoverer, but otherwise
he is not too bad at playing Challenger. He has the personality
approximately right. His acting is the best thing about this
adaptation. On the other hand, choosing comic actor Richard Hayden as
Summerlee was a fiasco. His performance grates on one's nerves whenever
he is on the screen. He acts as if he is in some other movie. Michael
Rennie makes a decent Roxton. He has the self-assured quality that
Doyle would have appreciated. David Hedison is a little old to play
Edward Malone and have the sort of boyish enthusiasm and insecurities
that Doyle gave that character.
Irwin Allen updates the story to roughly 1960. The film opens with
Challenger returning from the Amazon to report his discoveries of live
dinosaurs on a plateau of South America. With Challenger's traditional
hatred of reporters he clouts Ed Malone trying to interview him. Malone
is pulled from the ground by Jennifer Holmes (Jill St. John), the
daughter of his publisher.
At the geographic society Challenger reports having seen dinosaurs. The
skeptical audience suggests a return visit to verify his findings. In
return for funding, Challenger is saddled with a reporter on the
expedition, Malone. He also gets Professor Summerlee and big game
hunter Lord John Roxton. At a stop in South America the expedition
picks up two local guides, pilot Manuel Gomez (Fernando Lamas) and
lackey Costa (Jay Novello). (Manuel and Gomez are two different
characters in the novel.) Also joining the expedition more or less by
blackmail are Jennifer and her brother David (Ray Stricklyn) as well as
a poodle named Frosty. The siblings are no invention of Doyle, but the
choice of the name Holmes is likely an allusion to Doyle.
The expedition takes a helicopter to the plateau, getting magnificent
views from overhead. They land on the plateau but see no sign of
dinosaurs. That night they hear a large beast in their vicinity,
terrorizing them. They soon find their helicopter was crushed and
kicked over the side of the cliff. We get a glimpse of a large lizard
with a neck frill. Challenger identifies it as a brontosaurus, but what
we saw did not look anything like a brontosaurus. In any case the
explorers find they are now stranded on the plateau. The next day they
are menaced by man-eating plants and more dinosaurs. One of the latter
splits up the group and Malone and Challenger as one subgroup find a
native girl. Malone follows her and finds her, even at the cost of
running through the web of a four-foot-wide tarantula spider.
Malone brings her to camp where only Roxton recognizes that capturing
her could mean trouble from the rest of her tribe. Relations are about
to degenerate into a fistfight when Roxton finds a strange diary. It
was kept by Burton (not Maple) White who discovered the plateau in
partnership with Roxton. White's diary says he is waiting for Roxton to
rescue him and that he is looking for legendary diamonds. Roxton was
part of that team, but let the others down. He never came for them. Now
he has come again with Challenger, but with the motive of looking for
the diamonds. Jennifer is deeply disappointed in the man she was hoping
to catch.
David tries to comfort the native girl and in the process discovers that
she knows how to use a rifle. He is about to tell the others when the
group is attacked. The native girl escapes and Malone follows her. The
reporter loses her and returning through the forest finds Jennifer. The
two are making their way back to camp when they find themselves in the
paths of two fighting dinosaurs. They must hide as the two titans
fight. This is a rather sadistic piece of footage when one sees that
these are live lizards pitted against each other. Eventually the
dinosaurs fall over the side of the plateau.
Jennifer and Mallone return to camp finding it empty. They realize that
the others have been captured. In moments they find that they are also
prisoners of the natives. Taken to the native city they find
drum-beating ceremonies in progress. They are reunited with their
fellow captive explorers.
Just when they realize they are to be eaten the native girl comes along
to rescue David. With a little effort she is convinced to help the
whole group escape. He takes them to find a blind Burton White (Ian
Wolfe). White tells them there is a path thought the plateau to the
base. How it got there in a volcanic plateau is hard to understand.
Why would lava take such a path? But the expedition takes this path
past deadly people-grabbing tendrils and a graveyard of dead dinosaurs.
The entire plateau is starting to erupt and explode. They expedition
uses fire to keep back the pursuing natives. They find the diamonds,
but also more trouble and another dinosaur. As they leave the plateau
blows itself to pieces.
This version invents its own subplots, but which version does not? The
script is not great, but it would have made for at least a good
adventure film had the dinosaurs looked like dinosaurs.
For those in the audience who would recognize Willis O'Brien's name in
the credits listed as "effect technician." He was reportedly asked his
opinion of the possibility of lizard special effects and told the
producers how bad those effects were. They paid him for his opinion,
ignored it, and put his name in the credits. That probably was the plan
from the beginning. The film had moments, but overall was not very good.
The plot is confused with a previous expedition that was bungled, a
treasure hunt for diamonds, and a revenge plot. Perhaps the capper of
mistakes was to have the woman expedition member bring a poodle. There
is no adventure film so exciting that it cannot be ruined by the
presence of a poodle. The Disney film THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE
WORLD made the same grievous error. Perhaps it was supposed to be a
counterpoint of Gertrude the Duck of the previous year's far superior
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, also from Fox. However, while the
duck worked well, Frosty the poodle served only to demonstrate how silly
this expedition was. With the exception of the dog, the writing is not
really bad--it just fails to be very interesting. It might be best
appreciated if one just does not look at the screen once the expedition
reaches the plateau.
With all its faults, at least this film does not talk down to its
audience and does not have the juvenile feel of the 1992 and 1999
versions. It has a sort of empty, Technicolor, wide-screen, 1950s feel.
The plateau never looked so good as seen from above at a distance.
This was a bad and disappointing version of the Doyle, but it would
neither be the last such, nor would it be the worst. Irwin Allen was
aiming for an adult audience while relying on a teenage crowd (not
unlike the soon to begin Bond series). The next version would wait
thirty-two years, just three years short of the interval between the
silent and first sound version. And the new version was definitely made
with a younger audience in mind.
THE LOST WORLD (1992)
The 1992 version of THE LOST WORLD, a Canadian production directed by
Timothy Bond (who previously directed episodes for the television series
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "War of the Worlds") and written
and co-produced by Harry Alan Towers. The film is shot in Zimbabwe and
apparently was made together or in tandem with a sequel, RETURN TO THE
LOST WORLD. To accommodate this location the plateau is moved from
South America to Africa. The transplant gives the story a sort of H.
Rider Haggard feel that would be okay, but it is not Doyle.
Towers's script starts reasonably faithful to the Doyle but quickly
shows its loyalties are more to sending (condescending) politically
correct messages than to the text by Doyle. Male chauvinists everywhere
are given a come-uppance by a strong female on the expedition. Because
the script is already being written on a juvenile level, a boy is added
to the expedition to give children someone to identify with.
As in the book, Malone (Edward McCormack) passes himself off to
Challenger (John Rhys-Davies) as a scientist, but he does not have the
knowledge to maintain the ruse. Malone is, incidentally, made a
Canadian to give the Canadian audience a one of their own to care about.
Challenger attacks Malone, the police intervene, and Malone endears
himself to Challenger by choosing not to press charges. The forming of
the expedition is pretty much like in the manner of the novel though
they end up with woman reporter Jenny Nielson (Tamara Gorksu) and a
twelve-ish boy Jim (Darren Peter Mercer). The character of Roxton has
been eliminated and there is no equivalent. As in the book but few film
versions it is decided that it is Summerlee (David Warner) who will lead
the expedition and Challenger will remain behind. Not to worry,
Rhys-Davies is too big a star to not be included in the expedition.
More invented characters come along. On the way the expedition is
joined by a female Noble Savage in a revealing two-piece outfit. She is
Malu (Nathania Stanford) and can be counted on to have politically
correct thinking as everybody raised in the bush would have. Also along
is the nasty Gomez (Geza Kovacs). One more piece that harks from the
book--in the end the expedition brings back to London a pterodactyl,
though the story of the pterodactyl is somewhat different from Doyle's tale.
The reporter Jenny Nielson appears inspired by the real person Nellie
Bly. She is a slightly aggressive feminist. On the other hand John
Rhys-Davies makes a passable Challenger in stature and temperament. He
is, after his earliest scenes and though he feuds with Summerlee, less
strident and more boyishly likable than in the Doyle.
The choice to do the film in a didactic and juvenile fashion that makes
it a very bad disappointment after a start that is at least decent. The
dinosaurs were rubbery and cute with rough edges rounded off and so was
the writing. The script looks for every politically correct lesson that
can be wrung from the plot. Doyle, of course, had no women on the
expedition. The first two film versions each had one woman along. This
version has two attractive women and a plucky youngster. Things are
going downhill.
I will not say much about the sequel, RETURN TO THE LOST WORLD. It is
not an adaptation of the Doyle, but only inspired by it. The story
involves European entrepreneurs who want to exploit the petroleum in the
no longer lost world and the team returns to the plateau to protect it.
It is not the most original or engaging story and did not really need
this particular prehistoric land to tell its story. The sequel
certainly underscored that Maple White Land was a noble and wondrous
world that needed to be preserved. The 1998 version had a very
different attitude toward Maple White's mysterious land.
THE LOST WORLD (1998) a.k.a. SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE'S THE LOST WORLD
Six years after the Canadian production of THE LOST WORLD, the story was
again adapted in the United States with some unusual variations. Even
the title was modified. Following the films BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA and
MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN, it became popular to include the original
author's name in the title of films based on classics. It somehow
promised that the content fidelity to the original work. BRAM STOKER'S
DRACULA added a love interest for Dracula that Bram Stoker would not
have recognized, and MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN had Victor bringing his
bride back from the dead in precisely the way that the character in the
book did not. Still, it was popular for a while to put the author's
name in the title. Hence in two years we have two different films
titled SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE'S THE LOST WORLD. This is the first. To
make things even more confusing the two versions each has the same actor
playing Summerlee. It must take a lot of explanation on his resume that
these really are different films. This film proves its loyalty (or lack
thereof) to the original text by starting in Mongolia, of all places.
The 1998 film opens with Maple White finding a pterodactyl egg and
paying for it with his life. He lives long enough to pass his notebook
and other interesting evidence to his traveling companion and partner G.
E. Challenger (Patrick Bergin, who does not look anything like Doyle's
Challenger). When Challenger returns to London with his claims that
dinosaurs exist, showing notebooks as his evidence, as usual in
adaptations he is met with skepticism and is offered the means for an
expedition. Amanda White (Jayne Heitmeyer) recognizes her father's
notebooks and insists on being part of the expedition. Mr. Summerlee is
ambivalent about being asked to go on the expedition, but after a moment
agrees. Unique in this version, Summerlee is actually a fairly decent
and interesting character and one the audience cares for. Michael
Sinelnikoff makes a very acceptable if not highly memorable Summerlee.
He does such a good job that in the unrelated production the following
year he repeated the role, though that part was not as well written. He
is, I believe, the only actor to repeat a role in two unconnected
productions of THE LOST WORLD. He also plays the role in the "Lost
World" television series, of which I will say more later. John Roxton
(David Nerman) is demoted from being the book's English lord to being an
obnoxious American hunter who later proves to be of villainous intent.
Arthur (!) Malone the reporter also joins the expedition played by an
unmemorable Julian Casey. Bergin's Challenger gets along neither with
Summerlee nor Roxton, though the audience likes Roxton considerably less.
Using several conveyances of the period, which seems to be the 1930s or
so, the crew makes its way to Mongolia and the plateau out of time. The
final step involves a helium balloon to ascend the plateau as a sort of
getaway after the team has just rescued Ms. White. (Note that Doyle
used a balloon for descent at the end of the novel.) In the best
traditions of KING KONG she had been kidnapped by natives and stretched
out on a rack. Having just been rescued and ascending to a land of
vicious dinosaurs, Amanda White literally found herself between a rack
and a hard place. And a hard place, the plateau is. The travelers find
their land of dinosaurs--particularly vicious dinosaurs--and two warring
tribes. One of the tribes are Neanderthals one more modern. In the end
of an uncomfortable stay only Challenger and White make it out alive,
though Malone is left behind on plateau like an Edgar Rice Burroughs hero.
We initially see a "brontosaurus" with some features that are wrong for
the animal. Perhaps some effect artist tried to get creative. However,
it turns out that the inaccuracy is a feature, not a bug. With hundreds
of millions of years of evolution. it appears dinosaurs have diverged
from those in the fossil record. Other adaptations have implied that
once you got to know this plateau it was a groovy place to be. Perhaps
one of the best touches of this version is that definitely is NOT the
case in this adaptation. This is probably the goriest adaptation, and
the plateau is a painful and dangerous place to be. Perhaps inspired by
JURASSIC PARK this film has the meanest and most nasty dinosaurs of any
version. The dinosaur effects seem to be in large part digital, though
perhaps some mechanical effects were used also.
Making up a little for deficiencies in the writing the film has a
terrific look. The art direction by Sylvain Gingras has an antique
Indiana Jones tone. Several interesting vehicles are used to bring the
explorers to Maple White land, especially a sort of half-track bus.
While the transplantation from a South American jungle to snowy Mongolia
seems all wrong, it is not a bad setting for an adventure story. It is
reminiscent RKO setting their SHE (1935) in Tibet rather than Africa.
In the end, with Malone marooned in Maple White Land as a sort of
Robinson Crusoe with dinosaurs, it is expected his adventures might
continue. This is a touch borrowed from Edgar Rice Burroughs. No sequel
was made. However, someone in Canada had a very similar idea. Why not
have a TV series set on the plateau? So nearly at the same time
Canadian producers made their own version of the story, but handled it
as a TV pilot and sold an entire TV series on the premise.
THE LOST WORLD (1999) a.k.a. SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE'S THE LOST WORLD
Richard Franklin directed the 1999 version of THE LOST WORLD as a
two-hour (minus commercials) pilot for the Canadian TV series of the
same name. In fact the series sold and apparently ran in Canada and the
United States. I was less than pleased with the pilot, which was very
much of a television quality.
The setup is only vaguely correct and the people never do get off the
plateau because then we would not have a continuing television series,
would we? The focus is not even on the characters that Doyle created.
They are lessened in importance compared to new strong (female) characters.
After an action prolog in which we see a man attacked by something big
in a jungle, presumably a dinosaur. He finds tall, handsome explorer
Challenger (Peter McCauley, very unlike Doyle's version). He dies in his
camp, but not before he leaves Challenger his journal and photo
negatives of pterodactyls. Challenger returns to London with tales of
this lost world that he has not visited. He tells the geographic
society of his discovery. They are skeptical, but suggest a special
expedition. There are the usual three volunteers: Ned Malone (William
deVry), Lord John Roxton (William Snow, a Pierce Brosnan look- alike),
and Dr. Summerlee (Michael Sinelnikoff). Michael Sinelnikoff, as I
said, also played Summerlee in the American version the previous year.
In that he was a major character. Here, though he plays the same role,
he has a lot less acting to do.
In one more variance from the book, Challenger seems to have no enmity
toward Malone. When the question of who will fund the expedition arises
a mysterious and beautiful woman steps forward, Marguerite Krux (played
by Rachel Blakely) and volunteers on the proviso that she can come on
the expedition. Krux irritatingly has attitudes of 1999 and not at all
of 1912. She complains about museums of "dead things." She wears brief
outfits in the jungle. They nicely show off her cleavage but would be
roughly the equivalent of ringing a flying insect dinner bell. She also
seems to like skinny-dipping. The Victorian Doyle would probably have
been scandalized by this adaptation of his book.
The group travels to the rain forest. Along the way they survive an
attack by headhunters. They also survive the crash landing of the
balloon they brought for their ascent onto the plateau. The landing of
the balloon is never shown, probably as an economy measure. (The credit
sequence shows the splintered piece of plateau that is the way the
explorers in the book get onto the main plateau. The film never
actually uses that entrance, choosing a perhaps more visual balloon ascent.)
On the plateau the explorers find Veronica, a Sheena-like jungle girl
clad in a brief leather two-piece. She also is an abundant source of
cleavage and is the last survivor of a previous expedition that included
her parents. She has grown up on the plateau, and she lives in a
fantastic tree house beyond anything Tarzan imagined. It even has an
elevator.
The characters are not well developed. Roxton proves to be a likable
bounder. The other males are bland and uninteresting. Krux would be a
character of some interest if she were a little less 1999 and more 1912.
The special effects are generally indifferently executed and there is
not much real interaction between humans and dinosaurs. The large beasts
are seen most frequently from distance. The prehistoric animals are an
audience attraction, but they are a background detail that rarely fits
into the plot. In fact, before the dinosaurs are first seen by the
expedition, nobody even thinks to ask Veronica if there are dinosaurs on
the plateau or not. The actual purpose of the expedition just never
comes up. Now that is really relegates the dinosaurs to the background
and concentrates more on the ape-men. Of course, Doyle did much the
same. The effects might have been good if seen in Willis O'Brien's day
but are really not up to 1990s standards. The images of the beasts are
just never really integrated into scenes with people and frequently
there are bad matte lines. When a pterodactyl grabs Roxton and carries
him off the lizard undulates in air with the wing-beats, but Roxton
remains rigid.
This version is more just a castaway story than a serious adaptation of
Doyle's book. It is reminiscent of the old children's program "The Land
of the Lost." The pilot is less interested in telling Doyle's story as
in setting up the television series.
This brings us to the television series. Episodes I have seen have not
been very interesting and not very faithful to the Doyle. They seem to
freely move into the area of fantasy and have a lot of female flesh.
Some of the writing is painfully bad. While searching for a way off the
plateau the trapped explorers find what Challenger calls an "ocean"--on
the plateau. He wants to find a sea route off the plateau. How exactly
does he think that would work? How do you have an ocean lapping at the
top of a plateau?
But even while this "sci-fi" series was being produced techniques for
creating animal images on film improved. And Doyle's story was, as
always, the perfect showcase for the new effects. So two years later
the story was filmed a sixth time.
THE LOST WORLD (2001)
It is not like previous decade had not had several adaptations of Arthur
Conan Doyle's THE LOST WORLD. But after the BBC finished their "Walking
with Dinosaurs" with very realistic-looking effects, I suspected that
the next natural thing to do with this technology for creating lifelike
dinosaurs was to juxtapose them with humans. No respectable non-fiction
presentation could do that. One would have to do a story in which
humans interface closely with the dinosaurs. There is only one classic,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's THE LOST WORLD. (Note: JOURNEY TO THE CENTER
OF THE EARTH does have humans in viewing distance of an ichthyosaur
fighting a plesiosaur, but these are not really dinosaurs and it is only
one sequence.) So once again the Doyle was adapted.
The BBC, in cooperation with the A&E cable network, brought us a new
version about 165 minutes long. The special effects combine CGI and
full-scale models to give us state of the art visuals and dinosaur
images that look realistic and fit our current paleontological knowledge.
This was, at least to my taste, the best version of the story we are
likely to get for a while. Willis O'Brien who created the effects for
the 1925 THE LOST WORLD and then was heartbroken when lizards were used
in the 1960 version of the film would have been very pleased to see this
version. Doyle might have been a little less pleased with the liberties
taken with the plot. But still it was done on a relatively intelligent
level.
Bob Hoskins takes a turn playing Challenger, a scientist with the
reputation for being a crackpot. He outdoes himself when he claims that
on his last expedition to South America he found a remote place where
dinosaurs still live. The Royal Society is skeptical but fits out an
expedition of four led by Challenger and the bland intellectual
Summerlee (Edward Fox this time), a skeptic who has no patience for
Challenger's claims or eccentricities. There is also game hunter Lord
Roxton (Tom Ward) and news reporter Edward Malone (Matthew Rhys). The
expedition finds the plateau where Challenger saw the dinosaurs all
right, but their means of exit is destroyed in a way closer than usual
to the Doyle, though still somewhat revisionist. They have to face the
now all-too-real dinosaurs that Challenger reported seeing.
None of the cinematic versions of the novel have been really faithful.
The newest version only roughly follows the Doyle and creates two new
major characters. Agnes Clooney, raised in the jungle near the site of
the plateau has lived in the jungle all her life and will act as a guide
at the plateau. Theo Kerr (Peter Falk) is her uncle, a Bible-thumping
missionary at odds with Summerlee over the issue of Creationism and
Evolution. This is a more intelligent revision than in previous
versions, but one wonders why it is always found necessary to revise the
Doyle plot.
While the triangle of Challenger, Summerlee, and Kerr contest science, a
romantic triangle of Clooney, Roxton, and Malone sprouts. The novel is
"revised" throughout. In the novel, Challenger is the most irascible
character with a reputation for violence against newspaper reporters
like Malone. Hoskins loses this dimension and seems to be the most
pleasant and amiable of the expedition members. The story starts as
great fun, though in the last hour the writing is disappointingly
pedestrian.
Among the modifications from the Doyle is the effort to humanize the
sub-human ape men on the plateau. In the book they were cruel killers
who entertained themselves dropping their enemies over cliffs. That
aspect was considerably toned down for this television version. This is
the longest version yet made so there is more emphasis on South American
color than there was even in the novel.
The special effects are certainly what sets this version apart from
previous cinematic adaptations of the novel. Still, the dinosaurs,
while more real-looking than previous version, are not quite integrated
with the people. When we see an entire dinosaur, requiring CGI, it
cannot quite interact with the people matted into the scene. It was much
like early Ray Harryhausen rarely had the creatures he created
interacting directly with people. When need be, he could have cowboys
lasso a dinosaur, but such effects were used sparingly and it showed.
In this LOST WORLD we see even less such interaction. People will be
chased by a dinosaur that looks realistic, but on a different plane from
the people. What does that mean? It is hard to describe.
Admittedly, in the 1950s it was very easy to describe what was wrong
with the special effects of a film. In the 21st century complaints with
the special effects are more abstract and harder to explain. But some
limitations are still obvious to the eye.
This is probably the best version of THE LOST WORLD since the 1925
version. It will probably be a while until a better version of THE LOST
WORLD is made.
Summary
Sadly after the one reasonably good film version in 1925, there are no
satisfying versions of Doyle novel. All versions have been too anxious
to introduce new characters, frequently love interests. And some try to
make political points. This is just not a novel that has been treated
very well in its film adaptations. Ordering them best to worst,
identifying them with the person playing Challenger and the year I would
say:
1. Wallace Beery 1925
2. Bob Hoskins 2001
3. Patrick Bergin 1998
4. Claude Rains 1960
5. John Rhys-Davies 1992
6. Peter McCauley 1999
It should be noted that the 1997 film THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK is
based, albeit loosely, on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name.
Nothing that I have ever seen has ever connected it with the Doyle's THE
LOST WORLD. I nevertheless notice that there are several plot parallels
to film versions of THE LOST WORLD. One man claims there is an isolated
place in South America where dinosaurs can be found. There is an
expedition to find the place. After a struggle against the dinosaurs,
one is brought back to a modern city where it escapes and goes on a
rampage. It is hard for me to not see this as a sort of tribute or
homage to the film versions of the Doyle.
There have also been audio versions of the story. Unfortunately, I do
not know of where any but one are available. BBC Radio did productions
of the story in 1938, 1944, 1949, 1952, 1958, and 1975. I have not heard
these versions, nor would I know even where to search for them. Any
pointers from readers to where to find these or other adaptations would
be welcome. I have heard an audio-book abridgment read by James Mason.
He was chosen, no doubt, because of his association with two classic
films based on more classic science fiction books, TWENTY THOUSAND
LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, albeit
books by Jules Verne not Arthur Conan Doyle. The one audio
dramatization I have heard was not one I had much hope for and it was
about what I expected.
ALIEN VOICES: THE LOST WORLD (1996)
"Alien Voices" is an audio theater company specializing in science
fiction stories. It is built around three actors associated with three
different series of STAR TREK. The actors are Leonard Nimoy (formerly
Spock), John de Lancie (Q), and Armin Shimerman (Quark). "Alien Voices"
seems frequently also associated with the cable Sci-Fi Channel. The
drama group seems to specialize in doing the classic science fiction
stories from the likes of H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Arthur Conan Doyle.
There are a number of faults built into any "Alien Voices" production.
The first is that the three actors are overly familiar and overly
associated in other roles. They also have characteristic voices. That
makes it almost impossible to lose them in their character. Through
ego, I suspect, they don't want to be lost in the roles either. One
does not have Lord John Roxton as a character so much as John de Lancie
DOING Lord John Roxton as the character. The acting is uniformly weak.
They use their own voices rather than using dramatic tricks to change
them and at the same time other actors are exaggerating accents
unrealistically. Thus the actors and scriptwriter make very clear that
they do not take the material seriously and they do not expect the
audience to do so either. It is supposed to be all in good fun, but it
makes it very hard to appreciate the stories. In any case the length of
the stories is on the order of forty-five minutes, which it really not
enough time to do justice to the novels they are adapting and too much
time is spent on the humor. In addition, what is there is not faithful
to the novels. That is not uncommon in dramatic adaptations, but they
take particularly large liberties. In the case of THE LOST WORLD,
Summerlee is a woman and becomes a love interest for Edward Malone.
There are little sexual double entendres and other references that the
Victorian Doyle would never have wanted in a novel intended as wholesome
entertainment for "the boy who's half man or the man who's half boy."
The story is told as the newspaper editor McArdle (Leonard Nimoy with no
effort to sound Scottish) reading dispatches from Edward Malone. Just
how these dispatches are supposed to get to London from the top of the
plateau is unclear, but in this version not a lot of time is spent
actually on the plateau. That part of the story, what should be the
shank, is much abbreviated. In fact, there are only two encounters with
dinosaurs on the plateau. While that part has a few of the essentials
from the novel, it is the least compelling sequence of the
dramatization. That may be because the virtues of that part of the
story are mostly visual.
In any case this adaptation is at best half-hearted and of all the
versions in covered in this article, it is the one least likely to
capture the imagination of a young new-comer.
There has never been a fully satisfying adaptation of Doyle's novel.
After a span of ten years in which there were four cinematic versions,
it seems unlikely there will be another one for a while. However, that
was what I would have thought after three adaptations and we got still
one more. As special effect technology improves, the fascination that
virtually everybody has with dinosaurs, will lead more people to try to
render them realistically on the screen. Then they will want to put
them in adventure stories. Some of Edgar Rice Burroughs is a
possibility. But really there is only one major classic adventure story
with dinosaurs. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it in 1912. It's THE LOST
WORLD.
(Thanks to ***@artimation.com for comments and proofing.)
Copyright Mark Leeper, 2003