The Lost World (1925) Movie Script

For decades The Lost World could be
seen only in an abridged version...
...about an hour in length. This edition
combines portions of eight prints...
...to present the most complete
reconstruction believed possible.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Stupendous
Story of Adventure And Romance
THE LOST WORLD
By arrangement with
Watterson R. Rothacker
Introducting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
author of the story.
I have wrought my simple plan
If I give one hour of joy
To the boy who's half a man
Or the man who's half a boy.
LONDON
I have a presentiment that you
are going to propose, Ed.
I do wish you wouldn't, for this
are so much nicer as they are.
But why can't you love me, Gladys?
Now tell me what's amiss with me.
I will only marry a man of great deeds
and strange experiences...
- a man who can look death in the face
without flinching!
In the office of the
London-Record Journal.
I want your legal advice. Profesor
Challenger threatens to sue my paper...
for doubting his yarn
about live dinosaurs.
FAMOUS ZOOLOGISTS RETURNS FROM SOUTH
AMERICA WITHOUTH PROOFS OF STRANGE TALE
Profesor Challenger, well-known author
and scientist, has returned to London...
...with a strange
tale of Mammoths,
Pterodoctyls and other
prehistoric monsters...
...roaming at large somewhere on the upper
reaches of the Amazon. Unfortunately...
...for the professor's
reputation for veracity,
he refuses to give the
exact location of his alleged...
...discoveries, and still
more unfortunately,
the photographs in his
possession are so badly damaged...
(when the Professor's canoe is
said to have been overturned)
...that they certainly
cannot be acepted...
...as evidence in this case.
I believe Challenger is insane!
He nearly killed three reporters
I sent to interview him today!
Mr. McArdle, couldn't you send me
on a dangerous assignment?
All I need is an opportunity -
You seem very anxious
to lose your life!
Have you been interviewing
Challenger, Malone?
Don't apologize - hurry over to Zoological
Hall and cover Challenger's lecture.
Reporters are barred
- but get in!
There's Sir John Roxton
- famous hunter and explorer.
He's here to check up on
Challenger's cock-and-bull story.
Well, Malone, we're in for
a lively session tonight.
- the students are out in force
to heckle old Challenger.
Challenger has made himself a public laughing
- stock by his tale about live dinosaurs!
What can he hope
to gain by such lies?
The back country of the
Amazon contains over...
...fifty thousand miles
of unexplored water-ways.
Who can say what may be living
in that jungle - as vast as all Europe?
But how can Challenger's story be true?
These creatures have all been dead
ten million years!
You might at least do him the justice
to hear him state his own case.
Reporters are barred-
...if I show my press pass I'll get
kicked out. I wonder if you -
Gladly - I'll take you
in on my pass.
That's profesor Summerlee,
the eminent coleopterist.
- owing to lack of proofs, this
Society cannot sponsor Profesor...
...Challenger's statement,
but is glad to afford him this
opportunity to state his case,
and, we trust,
clear his name.
Bring on your mastodons!
Bring on your mammoths!
I will - if any of you spineless worms
are brave enough to go back with me...
...into the trackless jungles
where these monsters live!
I told you old Challenger
is sincere!
And I'm not here tonight to defend
my statements - but to demand that...
...a committee be formed to go back
to the Lost World with me -
Looks like a riot.
It's a beastly shame!
When dealing with
undeveloped minds,
...it is useless to appeal to reason
- for they have none!
I am calling for volunteers!
Volunteers to face death - or worse
- for the sake of science.
I am sixty-seven years of age - but,
because I think you are a liar and a fraud -
I accept your challenge, sir!
Accepted! Better an old fool -
than a young coward!
I'm neither a student nor a scientist
- but I'd like to be counted in on this!
My friend, Sir John Roxton!
Accepted!
Your record as a hunter of big game will
add weight to your testimony - if we return!
Professor Challenger,
I'd like to go on this expedition!
Probably the brain of a child
- but the body of an athlete.
Accepted.
What is your name?
Edward E. Malone -
And your occupation?
I- I'm a-a-er-a reporter, sir.
London-Record Journal.
Take me home - I've had enough of this!
Eleven Enmore Park, Kensington, West!
Professor Challenger, I've got to
go on this expedition! The girl...
...I'm engaged to won't marry me
until I've faced death or -
This man attacked me!
Do you give him in charge, sir?
No. I was to blame.
I intruded upon him.
Now, sir, can't we talk
this expedition over sanely?
Sir John Roxton
is a friend of mine-
Why didn't you mention
that before?
You've hurt another nice young man!
I saw you from the dining room window!
If my husband gets abusive again -
just call me!
You betrayed a glimmer of intelligence
just now while talking to the policeman-
Sit down!
Do you want to join this expedition because
you believe my statements are true?
Austin!
Tell Miss White
I wish to see her at once!
Have you shown Malone - the diary?
Property of Maple White?
BRONTOSAURUS
Miss Paula White -
daughter of poor Maple White -
the unfortunate explorer
whose notebook you hold in your hands.
Miss White was her
father's trained assistant.
She will tell you
why she came to me.
I was in camp with jungle fever
when my father...
...went up to explore
that terrible plateau.
Carnivorous beast Allosaurus.
Evidently already almost externet
even lea for I saw few of they.
A Living Brontosaurus
You mean that you actually saw
living descendants of these monsters...
...that are supposed to have been
dead for millions of years?
Yes, they were tremendous
in size and ferocity.
Our bearers were so
terrified they deserted-
...carrying me back to the coast -
leaving my father...
...marooned up there -
with those beasts -
He would go
- in spite of what we had - seen.
My husband promised to raise funds
for a rescue party - but instead of...
...getting people to help him,
he throws them out of windows and things!
Why, this is a great
human interest story -
And even if my paper was not convinced of
the scientific value of your statements -
...it might finance a rescue party provided
that the exclusive publication rights-
I'll swear not to send an article back
to my paper without your full approval, sir!
If Sir John Roxton
will go with me -
I believe we can make my
managing editor see this thing!
I'm sure you know why I am going on
this rescue party, Paula - don't you?
LIVERPOOL
AMAZON RIVER
I will not bore those whom this narrative
may reach by an account of our voyage.
Eventually we found ourselves
in that no-man's-land...
...which is formed by
the half-defined frontiers...
...between Peru,
Brazil and Colombia.
The sealed map we promised Challenger
to not open untill we arrived here is only...
...a blank page.
Excepting a miracle,
our expedition seems to
have come to a premature end.
May I come in?
From henceforth
I take command of this expedition.
Let it be clear that you are all
perfectly helpless without me!
If that mischievious beast is to go with us,
I remain behind!
Jocko knows which berries and
roots in the forest are edible,
and which are poisonous...
- he will be far more use to us
than you, my dear sir!
RECORD
EXPLORERS REACH LAS OUTPOST OF CIVILIZATION
Record-Journal Party Searching
for Lost Scientist
to Make Way into Mystery World
via Secret Rivers.
MAY NOT BE HEARD
FROM AGAIN FOR MONTHS
It's a Brazilian sloth - they always walk
head downward. See the baby clinging to her?
Dear Mr. McArdle: It is three weeks
since we sent back the canoes...
...and tonight we are camping at the base
of the great plateau upon which...
...Maple White was marooned.
Challenger has guided us to
this spot, and proven that...
...the Plateau is a fact -
...but we have no reason to believe
that any monsters are roaming...
...about up there.
In fact, I don't think...
They're not cubs - but full grown
"spectacle bears" - great camp followers.
Paula says her father felled one of the trees
on that pinnacle so that it dropped across...
...the chasm and made a bridge.
You can still see the stump of the old tree.
In the morning we'll climb the pinnacle -
and drop the other tree over.
A Pterodactyl -
...proving definitely that the statements
in poor Maple White's diary are true!
A Brontosaurus
- feeding merely on leaves.
Perfectly harmless -
unless it happens to step on us.
Who would believe this! My elephant gun
might as well be a bean-shooter!
Great guns!
We can't get back!
We're prisoners
- exactly like Maple White!
That means our folk
are still alive!
What are you thinking of, Paula
- in this lost world of ours?
I was thinking if my father were still alive
- he would have seen our fire...
- and come to us.
An Allosaurus - a meat-eater -
the most vicious pest of the ancient world.
The barrier might as well thistle-down
- and fire may not work with the next one...
- we've got to find a safe camp!
Jocko will be mighty lonesome
down here without Miss.
Paula
- he climbed that big rock...
...this morning to get to her -
he can't bear that girl out of his sight!
I have an idea! After supper bring
all those hammocks into the tent!
We must establish camp here -
our only refuge from these monsters -
...if we'll live long enough
to search for your father.
Now that we've found these caves
we could live here the rest of our lives -
...if we had some weapon capable
of making a dent in a dinosaur!
I am now inventing
such a weapon.
We can't rest until every inch
of this plateau is explored!
It's miles in length -
your father may have found other caves -
When I release the tree it will
snap back with terrific force -
...and by calculating the curve the rock
will describe as it rushes through the air-
A curve? Nonsense! Any school boy could
tell you the rock will describe a parabola.
A curve!
A parabola!
I was right - you
described a curve!
We'll work all night and make enough
ladder to get you in the morning.
Fine! But how in thunder do you expect
to get it up to us?
Bring Miss Paula to call Jocko -
he'll climb anything to get to her!
There's only a small cave above this -
...but your father must be
somewhere on the plateau...
- it's impossible to get away!
Do you mean we are to be here -
always?
What difference does it make where we are
Paula - so long as we are - together?
But your engagement to - Gadys?
Paula, dear, we're as cut off from the world
and its obligations and promises...
...as if we were on the moon.
I'm going to ask Professor
Summerlee to marry us.
You know he used to be
a minister.
Go hunt up the professors
- I have something to - tell Paula-
A lovely specimen!
We'll stalk it and
observe its habits!
That dormant volcano is waking!
The whole plateau will be covered in lava!
But this has been going on for hours -
I'm afraid they're lost -
If they get back we must be here to show
them the way to the tunnel opening.
It's their only hope of escape!
The professors and Mr. Malone are safe -
they'll be here in a minute or two!
I certainly hope that mud holds!
We're back in the world
- and its obligations.
Why should we let Gladys
rob us of happiness, Paula?
I can't steal my happiness
from another woman.
I'm Major Hibbard, of the
Brazilian geodetic Survey.
Yesterday I saw a cloud of
smoke over the plateau -
And we smoked out
quite a rat, Major!
I'd give my entrie personal fortune to
get that beast to London - alive!
I'll send for men to dredge out this stream
- built a steel cage and a raft -
...and when the big rains come next month,
we might float your "rat" out!
If we once could get our raft
as far as the Amazon,
you could charter
a steamer from there!
Later - In London.
Tonight you will not jeer -
...for I have brought back
a living proof of my statements!
May I ask what you mean when you say
"proof", Professor Challenger?
A living Brontosaurus
- nearly sixty feet long...
...from the nose
to the tip of the tail!
Mr. Edward Malone,
through whose efforts this expedition,
was financed, is now superintending
the unloading of the monster...
...from the ship we chartered-
The message I have been
expecting has come!
I'll inform you in a moment when and where
the Brontosaurus will be on view!
As we swung the cage out over
the dock the cables broke-
The fall smashed the cage
- and it got out!
It's running wild
- the streets are in an uproar!
My Brontosaurus has escaped! Keep off
the streets, untill I recapture it!
This is outrage -
we've been hoaxed again -
Challenger should be
run out of town!
How d'ydo, Gladys.
You see I'm - back.
And, as you really owe it all to me,
I hope you'll forgive me - for not waiting.
My husband, Percy Potts.
May I ask what great stunt, what
heroic deed Mr. Potts performed -
...to win you, Gladys?
That was just my girlish whim!
Percy is a clerk at a store, and has
never been out of London in his life!
Excuse me!
She didn't wait for me -
she's married!
That's Sir John Roxton
- sportsman.