This week’s update may be a little late.

I had originally intended today’s entry to be an overview of the First National production of The Lost World. As I understand it, The Lost World represents both the first full length dinosaur film and the first film to depict a giant monster rampage – thus making it perhaps the most influential monster film of all time. As a consequence, I was eager to lay into the film, but at the same time aware of the limitations inherent in reviewing something from an incomplete print. You see, The Lost World is available in two versions – a truncated 64 minute print which has been the principle one in circulation for the last eighty years, and a newly restored print that brings the running time up to 93 minutes, only ten short of the original theatrical version. I have the former on DVD, and was under the impression I would not be able to get hold of the restored version without paying out a fair bit of money. However, I have recently discovered that the restored print of The Lost World is available on Quickflix, and that I can have it in my hands by Thursday. So in the interests of journalistic integrity, and putting aside the two thousand-odd words worth of review I had already written on the truncated version, I have decided to hold-off tackling The Lost World until next week. Instead, I would like to turn this unexpected hiccough into a two-part celebration of the early works of the one man who did more than any other to popularise the notion of movies where dinosaurs fight each other for no real reason.

So! What this means is that I'll probably just update Saturday afternoon again, like I did last week.