Lost Horizon (1973)

I watched this when it first came out, 6 times in fact. I was at the idealistic, questioning age, a Bacharach-David fan (still am) and we were still romanticising the 60's, flower power, the mystical East and the peace movement. Musicals at the movies was common.Home computers and the internet was still years away and opinioms and reviews seldom went beyond your circle of friends. Perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing.I have since learned just how poorly it performed at the box. So I found a copy online and watched it again, curious as to how I would appreciate it some 45 years later. I was older, wiser and sadly more cynical in my old age. But I sat through it, setting aside thoughts that many in the cast were deceased and Burt Bacharach's tunes were no longer played even in elevators.The verdict? It is a charming film. Like many old films, it was a time capsule of a more idealistic and simpler world. The set were well made (no CGIl, the plot simple, the music fun and bouncy and the players a mixed bag of talents delivering dialog that today would be all but remedial.However, enjoy it I did and the message while hopeful is no less applicable today as it was then. We are still lost without any solutions to the global turmoil and suffering and we still look to the distant horizon for guidance and salvation. We have lamentably made little to no progress in 45 years.

First of all, I love musicals. When this originally was released back in the 70s, my family was excited. We had the album with all of the wonderful Bacharach/David music and knew all of the songs before seeing the film. Then we saw it. Peter Finch's song, "If I Could Go Back" was cut, I guess for time. And so were two others. This was a pivotal point in the film. Otherwise, it seems like his character decides to leave Shangri-La and go back to civilization in about 2 seconds. Almost a "Umm, bye. See you." feel. Is still like the film and love the score.

What makes a musical, is the music. The music in this is excellent. Burt Bacharach and Hal David seldom miss and here they hit on every song. Reflections, The World is a Circle and I Might Frighten Her Away being great songs and routines. I recall, this movie bombed, was panned, by fan and critic alike, when it came out. At the time, the 70's, musicals were not a hot topic. Unless you were making a gritty, realistic, musical, like Cabaret, you were going against the grain. Dancing and prancing people seemed strange in this time of Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy and grittier films of the era. The movie was mistimed to be sure, because there isn't anything more ridiculous in this, than any of the great musicals of years past, be it prancing, knife wielding, gang members, to store clerks, to lions, to scare crows.I am sure the great actors, known so much more so for drama, than a musical, threw off the public. Seeing Ullmann, Finch, Kellerman, York, and Kennedy especially, so often playing the heavy, in lighter roles was different. But guess what? They are all great actors and pull it off completely.If you have read any of my reviews you know I review lesser known or disparaged movies that I feel deserve a lot better fate. Why review, for the one millionth time, Casablanca, Spartacus, Network, or Gone With the Wind? Guess what? They are great and considered so for a very real reason.Lost Horizon, on it's own is one of the best musicals made and a great telling of the classic story. The B & W, Ronald Coleman version , as good as it is , is flawed due to the lost footage and the scars the film has due to it's repair. This musical version, is the best version of Lost Horizon, I recommend giving it a try . I guarantee you will be whistling the songs soon after.

More of a bad idea than a particularly bad movie. Remaking the Frank Capra classic (based on the James Hilton novel) and adding some highly forgettable songs by none other than Burt Bacharach & Hal David just does not gel. The story is now legendary: a plane carrying a small group of people crashes in the mountains and the survivors are brought to a mythical land called Shangri-La. It's a place where nobody ages and there's no violence. Sounds like a dull place? Try sitting through this movie. Nothing comes together here and the addition of several ill-placed musical numbers are laughable rather than entertaining. The filmmakers further their many blunders by populating the film with the likes of Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann, Michael York, John Gielgud and George Kennedy, none of whom has any business appearing in anything even remotely approaching a movie musical. One time MGM song & dance man Bobby Van (the poor man's Donald O'Connor?) soft shoes through two numbers but adds very little. He's also saddled with performing the worst of the lousy songs...the highly idiotic "Question Me an Answer." Classy Charles Jarrott was brought in to direct and does so in a fairly straightforward manner. The direction is neither particularly imaginative nor particularly offensive. Additional wasted talent includes Jean Louis (costumes), Robert Surtees (cinematography) and Hermes Pan, who surely had his eyes closed concocting the silly choreography. The great Larry Kramer wrote the screenplay.