Long before Jurassic Park, and almost a decade before the release of King Kong, director Harry O. Hoyt made a silent feature film about a mythic world where dinosaurs still lived. The Lost World, based on the book by Arthur Conan Doyle, was released in 1925. However, in spite of being well received, it was withdrawn only four years later, and all known prints and export negatives destroyed. The talkies had arrived and silent film was considered obsolete.

The most complete version that we have today (reckoned to be about 90% complete) is drawn from a number of film collections, in particular a well-preserved 35mm print of the film that was only "discovered" at the Filmovy Archiv in Prague in 1992.

The plot of the film has a familiar ring to it. Explorer Professor Challenger is being ridiculed in London about his claims that there is a "lost world" in the Amazon where dinosaurs still roam. When he throws down the gauntlet to anyone brave enough to join him in searching out this land, earnest journalist Edward Malone jumps at the challenge. He wants to impress his girlfriend, Gladys, who wont marry him until he has proved himself.

After a bizarre first meeting, Challenger introduces Malone to Paula White, daughter of explorer Maple White, who disappeared atop a high plateau on a previous expedition. She shows Malone her father's diary with images of prehistoric creatures giving him the brilliant idea of a rescue mission funded by his newspaper. So with a party that includes the famous big game-hunter John Roxton, they pack their bags for the Amazon. In the ensuing adventure a romance develops between Malone and Ms White, they find the beasts and bring one back to London.

It's difficult to see how the 21st century viewer, used to modern animation wizardry, can be seriously frightened by the stiff, awkward movements of the animation, or basic effects like dinosaur eyes glowing in the dark. Unless you are a fan of the stylised art form of silent movies or prototype animation, this is best appreciated as B movie kitsch.

It is interesting how much the film tries to cram in: there are long deliberating takes with monkeys and other exotic jungle fauna, trips to caves with stalactites, erupting volcanoes, spear-carrying natives, a black-bootpolish-faced character call Zambo and, sometimes hilariously, a man wearing a bodysuit with matted fur glued onto it and a big set of falsers (apparently this ape-man is supposed to be science's "missing link"). There are coconut trees everywhere and, of course, dinosaurs, that although accurately rendered, have as much capacity to scare as a stuffed sock.

The performances of the actors are exaggerated (particularly Wallace Beery's angry Professor Challenger), which is as you might expect of the silent era, and punctuated with elements of slapstick. Bessie Love as the wide-eyed Paula White, remains lovely, while Lloyd Hughes as the young hero brings the requisite matinee good looks. Meanwhile, Lewis Stone as Sir John Roxton cuts the perfect figure of the English gentleman.

It should also be added that the restored film contains a few continuity problems, although nothing major.

One disappointment is that the action in London after the escape of the captured brontosaurus is relatively short. But then a big hairy gorilla called King Kong would come along a few years later to change that.