Journey to the Lost City

In 1957, near the end of his career, German director Fritz Lang -- best known for his 1926 classic, "Metropolis" -- agreed to re-make two films he'd collaborated on back in 1921. The original plan was to show these two films on consecutive nights but the American distributor simply edited them down to one feature, not much more than 90 minutes long, which was then titled, "Journey to the Lost City." Needless to say, a lot of plot continuity was lost in the process and the result is little more than a curiosity that offers only occasional hints of Lang's earlier talents.

Though made in the late 1950s, "Lost City" plays more like a film from the 30s or even the 20s with plot and characters that seem naive and with a style which has a vaguely dream-like quality. Its chief asset is the location footage shot in Rajasthan but to appreciate this, one must see a good print of the movie shown in a theater.

The cast can do little with their assigned parts. Paul Hubschmid, (billed as Paul Christian when he starred in "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms"), makes a passable hero and Debra Paget looks good in her hootchy-kootchy outfits. Like Paget, German-actor Walter Reyer may not look particularly Indian but his performance as the Maharajah has a bit of style. He's also featured in one of the film's most vivid moments when, temporarily toppled from power, he's tied shirtless between two posts in a tiger-pit and given a flogging.

One of the last cinematic projects to be worked on by legendary German film director Fritz Lang, Journey to the Lost City is really a combination of two films made in serial-like fashion set in India. The films tell the story of an Indian dancer(who obviously is not Indian) going to the "Lost" city(which seems to be very easy to find)to perform for the Majarajah, a German actor with a light coat of shoe polish. Along the way she falls in love with an architect who has been asked to help the city. The Majarajah wants to marry the dancer, and we soon have a very problematic love triangle on our hands. But wait! The Majarajah has an older brother that desires to be the sovereign. He leads an unhappy group of nobles against the love-struck Majarajah. The film is not up to par with most of Lang's work. It is derivative in its plot and direction. We get very little new and fresh. The actors are pretty bland. Debra Paget is beautiful, but she does little in her role. The rest of the cast of German thespians are okay with no one except Walter Reyer as the Majarajah standing out. He does what he can with his one-dimensional role. His scene being flogged, however, is probably the highlight of the film as well as the lepers rioting out of a cave. Whatever happened with the lepers? The film doesn't let us know. The best part of the film is the location shooting of India, a rich cultural tapestry. But the locations, expensive sets and costumes cannot fully save this essentially B movie. The story is very weak and the film has a look of being - poorly-crafted. Too bad this was the legacy of an aging Lang, a man who dazzled us with M and Metropolis. Although the film has many weaknesses, the film is vaguely entertaining in that Saturday afternoon way.