A Lost World Gradually Found

Blu-Ray Digs Up More Dinosaur Bones

Today's post is decorated with ads for the Noble Theatre's March 1926 engagement of The Lost World. The Noble sat 1,100 and was located in Anniston, Alabama. There were six theatres along Noble Street, for which the house was named. The Lost World stayed in Anniston for three days, and a fresh ad was prepared for each, proof again that showmanship thrived beyond urban sites (Anniston's population in 1926 approximately 20,000). I'd be stating the obvious to say that silent movie retrieval has become like archaeology, but where it comes to bones of The Lost World, the point just won't be overstated. Seems no sooner do they put it out again that someone turns up yet more footage to bring The Lost World closer to what crowds got in 1925. Fifty-four years is gone since I first got glimpse of those dinosaurs on 8mm, versions to follow on 16mm, video cassettes, laserdisc, DVD, and now Blu-Ray. Should they bury me with all this stuff, it'll take a bigger hole, all of which raises question, how much is enough? No complaint, of course, over what's dug up lately by Flicker Alley and round-world archives, their Lost World longer and sharper than anything so far found. How much more? Four nitrate reels to start, these surfaced since a last DVD (2004), plus snips to flesh out dinosaur doings we can't get enough of. Add topping of High-Def and it's wake-up for anyone who thought the book was closed on The Lost World, among most essential silent era releases of a past several years.

A job like this shows nothing is impossible along lost, then found, lines. For archivists devoted enough, there could be no Lost World as a truly done project, so long as parts of its jigsaw still dot the globe. We'd no more dismiss those than back off interior of an Egypt tomb after finding its entrance. The Lost World is endorsement for co-op among archives. Booklet essay by Serge Bromberg tells how disparate parts came together, a purchase's worth by itself. Flicker Alley whetted flame of anticipation with preview of its dinosaur gnawing a stark red torch thrown by Lost World intruders, this application of the "Handschiegl" hand-tint process. Not just more narrative, but plenty more monsters, are here, Flicker Alley's the Cambrian Explosion of fossil footage (highlight is a post-volcanic screenful of dinos in panicked retreat, something we had but glimpse of before). There is no better boost for silents excavation than this Blu-Ray. Flicker Alley has made fresh sensation of elements long buried and forgot, proving finds from far back can seem new again. If a next generation of silent era enthusiasm is to be birthed, here may be its conception point.

More of The Lost World at Greenbriar Archive: Two Lost Worlds --- Part One, A Lost Cleveland Theatre Presents The Lost World in 1925, Bronto-Socko Selling Of The Lost World in Oklahoma City.