The exceptionally gruff, journalist-hating Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) embarks on an expedition to return to the Amazon jungle, where he claims to have seen dinosaurs living on top of a vast plateau. Along for the ride are a reporter and the daughter of a scientist who has disappeared in the jungle.
This silent fantasy epic was the first to be adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's celebrated novel, in this instance by Marion Fairfax. It's not inaccurate to describe this as the Jurassic Park of its day, with its uncomplicated plot showcasing its groundbreaking special effects.
Speaking of which, Willis O'Brien's effects work, while not one hundred per cent convincing, does have a lot of charm and is much preferrable to the magnified lizards that were used for this sort of thing in later years. There's a few too many close-ups of Bessie Love looking horrified, but character development is kept to the barest essentials.
The 1960 Irwin Allen version is to be avoided, the 2001 BBC miniseries was pedestrian, so for full entertainment value, the 1925 film is the one to see. Also featuring a troublesome apeman, an active volcano, a brontosaurus on the rampage in London, and a helpful monkey. The dino battles are nice and gory, too. One mystery, though: what's a Hawaiian hula hula girl doing in the Amazon?
