"Lost Horizon" (1973)

[joefilmone]

This is a great example of what-were-they-thinking-movie-disasters. The first half hour is actually quite good- with some truly spectacular action scenes. But once the mostly non musical stars begin to "sing" and "dance" the movie goes from ok to ridiculous- the highlight is the infamous celebration of the family all male ballet- that might one of the gayest production numbers ever staged and yes now thanks to the Warner Brothers Archives you too can witness this jawdropping bit of bad cinema history....all together now " Question me an answer bright and clear..."

 

Edited by: joefilmone on Jan 1, 2012 10:50 PM

[DougieB]

It was still the early 70's and I think maybe they thought they were tapping into the spirit of the times. As we now know, trying to tap into that particular spirit was problematic on many levels, particularly for moviemakers locked into traditional forms and techniques. Which makes it all the more fun, of course. I bet the pre-production meetings would be just as entertaining as the movie itself, if you could be a fly on the wall. Must have been a pretty trippy storyboard.

[johnm001]

I don't like any version of LOST HORIZON, including the novel, or novella, or whatever it is. My favorite thing about the musical version is the music. Only problem is that it doesn't belong in LOST HORIZON. The story screams for a Lerner & Lowe score. Still, the songs are the best thing about it, inappropriate though they may be.

[joefilmone]

Hunter obviously intended this to be his Oscar movie- he wanted a more tradional musical composer like Lerner and Lowe but the studio preferred a sound track album they could sell- the print they used for the DVD is stunning with some very vivid colors. The costumes design specially on the women is hedious. The songs are ok but they seemed to be very awkwardly staged- the children are terrible performers.

[johnm001]

The musical numbers are horribly staged. The songs work best as a soundtrack album.