Lost Horizon

I watched this film when I was a young girl in Taipei, Taiwan. I loved the film! From the wonderful cast, to the scenery and the musical scores! It has stuck with me throughout the years as being one of my favorites. My sister and I had the sound track and played it all the time during our teenage years. If I had it today, I would still play it.

As Bette Midler used to say, "I never miss a Liv Ullman musical". Here is a film which attempts to inspire and uplift, and I guess it succeeds, if for reasons quite different from those intended.

Unless they attempt a musical version of "Schindler's List" this will probably be the all time champion in the "Play it straight" stakes. James Hilton's novella, heaven knows, was a piece of fluff which tantalised rather than explored its themes. The 1937 film was a winner because, hey, what Frank Capra film in the '30s wasn't?

But if we had to have a musical version, wouldn't it have been a good idea to hire a couple of musical stars?! Okay, at a push Bobby Van passes muster, and thank God that he's meant to be that annoying, because after five minutes the idea of him being lost in a snowdrift seemed eminently satisfying. But as for the rest - George Kennedy, Peter Finch, Sally Kellermann, John Gielgud, Olivia Hussey - well we aren't going to see them in a revival of "42nd Street" now are we? My favourite definitely has to be Kellermann and Hussey thumping around a library, the former looking bored, the latter very pregnant, singing what seems to be a 70s New Age version of the "Green Acres" theme.

But its Liv who suffers most. Swinging those bovine limbs of hers, singing some nonsense about the world being a circle which never ends - an apt description of the song - she seems light years away from Bergman. Actually she bears a striking resemblance to Bill Clinton in some of her long shots.

Only Michael York emerges with any credibilty. And that's mainly because his character keeps nagging everybody to run away. And who could blame him?

This movie is one on the forgotten musicals. The Burt Bacharach-Hal David music alone is worth the price of the film. Almost all reviewers say it is a bomb, but after seeing it three times it grows on you. The music is TERIFFIC!

The musical remake of 'Lost Horizon' has been almost uniformly panned over the years and has long been unavailable on home video. So is it really that bad? Comparisons with the 1937 Ronald Colman classic aside, this Bacharach-David musical starts as an adventure story and only moves into song and dance fantasy about 45 minutes into the film, when the mixed bag of plane crash survivors (Peter Finch, Michael York, Sally Kellerman, George Kennedy, Bobby Van) discover Shangri-La, led by Oxford graduate Chang (John Gielgud) and the High Lama (Charles Boyer).

So the cast looks strong - and in Shangri-La is boosted by wimpy Olivia Hussey and pouty Liv Ullmann. But aside from Van there's no one with experience of musicals. More of that later.

The songs are not that memorable, aside from the melody which first introduces the fantasy village up in the mountains. The staging of musical numbers, by Fred Astaire's associate Hermes Pan, aren't that fascinating. However, there is still enough here to keep you watching: but whether it is from the impulse to watch a real turkey unfolding or from a need to watch the story to the end, I'm not sure.

I wouldn't really class this as a musical; there are too few songs. And Finch in particular is wasted in this although he plays his part dead straight.

The remake of Lost Horizon is a misfire, but not completely awful. Some criticisms of this film are justified, but by no means all. Give it a go and make up your own mind.

There are two groups of people in the world: those who love this 1973 remake of "Lost Horizon" and those who are lucky to escape with their lives if caught in a theater with a majority from the first group. There is no in between. Either you accept polar bears rumbling about the Himalayas and designer caps propped jauntily aside the head during treks at the Roof of the World, or you don't.

The classic "Lost Horizon" asked the viewer to suspend belief in the hope of something better. This "Lost Horizon" makes the viewer appreciate what he's already got... no clubfooted school teachers snaking about with obnoxious children; no litter-lugging sherpas chanting "living together, loving together" to a couple undoubtedly more anxious to get on with the latter than the former; and no English lords moonlighting as high lamas.

Do not let anyone persuade you not to see this movie. Like wearing purple and eating more ice cream than beans, it is a required rite of passage before leaving this veil of tears. Which, I guarantee you will have in abundance, no matter into which of the two groups you fall.