The Lost World 1925 Classic version (Silent Era)

The Lost World," a 1925 silent film, is the first dinosaur-oriented film hit and features the story of a scientist trying to prove the existence of dinosaurs in South America. The movie, is the first full-length feature movie to use stop motion animation and feature model animations as special effects.
This version combines portions of eight prints to present the most complete restoration possible.
Actor Wallace Beery stars as Professor Challenger, Bessie Love as Paula White and Lewis Stone as Sir John Roxton. It was directed by Harry O. Hoyt and featured pioneering stop motion special effects by Willis O'Brien, a forerunner of his work on the original "King Kong."

The movie is based on Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 book of the same name. According to reports, Doyle showed a test reel to a meeting of the Society of American Magicians, which included Harry Houdini, and the audience was astounded.
Doyle appears in a short prologue to the film.

From Wikipedia: This was the first feature-length film made in the United States, possibly the world, to feature model animation as the primary special effect, or stop motion animation in general. Willis H. O'Brien had previously, in 1918, worked on a film called The Ghost of Slumber Mountain that used stop motion photography. In The Lost World, he combined animated dinosaurs with live-action footage of human beings, but at first he was able to do this only by separating the frame into two parts (also known as split screen). As work went on, O'Brien's technique grew better and he could combine live-action and stop-motion footage in the same part of the screen.
This is the first dinosaur-oriented film hit, and it led to other dinosaur films, from King Kong to the Jurassic Park series. Michael Crichton's sequel to Jurassic Park was named The Lost World, in homage to Doyle's novel and film.
["The Lost World" entered the public domain on January 1, 1954.]

+ Read more