Lost Horizon. The Worst Musical Ever! NOW ON DVD!

...coms to DVD at last!


Sony have cleaned up available prints and are currently putting together extensive extras to go with the long awaited DVD release of this 1973 massive box office flop.

December 2011 is penciled for release.


'Lost Horizon' is considered one of the last in a string of box office musical failures which came in the wake of the success of 'The Sound of Music'
Attempts to update the idea of Shangri-La with its racial inequalities intact, coupled with old-fashioned songs effectively sealed its fate. Shangri-La was depicted as a middle-class geriatric utopia where... you can live indefinitely, lounging and puttering about for hundreds of years... the Orientals are kept in their places, and no blacks... are among the residents.

After much derided preview screenings Columbia Pictures re-cut the film, but to no avail.
Critic John Simon remarked that it "must have arrived in garbage rather than in film cans".

The songs were written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, whose long partnership hit rocky ground within months of this film's release. The film was such a poor performer at the box office that it was nicknamed "Lost Investment."

An impressive cast was put to together for the movie, Peter Finch, John Gielgud, Liv Ullmann, Michael York, Sally Kellerman ...all of them disowned the work straight away and refusing to do any publicity for its premiers.


The LP soundtrack has been a much sought after collectors piece for over 30 years and after much campaigning a remastered version was released on CD a few years ago.

What great news!!! I hope they reinstate the missing songs. i LOVE IT !

Channel 5 showed this a couple of years ago. I had only ever seen clips from the film and heard a couple of the tunes. It truly is a musical turkey, but has to be seen to be believed.

I've just listened to it on my flight from Madrid to London and it really is absolutely bloody awful!
Last, and only time, I've seen the movie was on its first release in q973 and I saw it in an empty Odeon Leicester Sq, I believe it played to empty cinemas across the world!

Cant wait for this DVD!

It was awful - but unfortnately I've seen (and heard) even worse.

I see on the one sheet above that it was chosen for the Royal Film Performance in 1973. I'd never wish that upon her majesty. Maybe she sent Margaret intead

I think they used to pick the worst movie of every year for the RFP lol

I love (most) of the score. Recently I discovered that iTunes have the album and downloaded my faves. I am happy. "Have you ever dreamed of a place...far away from it all?...". The film is...ponderous.

I love it!

Now for the ultimate Christmas present please: a DVD of The Boyfriend movie- in my view one of the most fun movie musicals.

The Boyfriend is now available through the Warner Archives Collection. You can now buy practically all of their musicals now, but i wish they would release them on normal DVD's rather than DVDR's

Thanks for that! Fantastic news.

But the website says it only ships to US destinations. Is there another outlet, Paul?

I had a look on the Amazon US site, but it says it's unavailable. Maybe try Ebay
I dont know why Warners dont just release these tiles properly.

«««« NEWS FLASH »»»» NEWS FLASH «««««

OK, its just weeks away.
It is only on DVDR.
It will NOT be released in the forseeable future in the UK.
99% of the long missing material has been restored and reinstated!!!!! (Mama faints)


'Lost Horizon'
When passengers survive a plane crash in the Himalayas they end up in the mystical world of Shangri-La, an idyllic oasis where art, culture and the knowledge of the world are treasured.
In Shangri-La, the survivors learn about beauty, peace and serenity -- and, for some, true love'.

Based on the classic James Hilton novel, with an all-star, award-winning cast, 'Lost Horizon' is the ambitious musical remake of the Frank Capra classic.
With a much deleted Burt Bacharach songs and sequences restored to the theatrical version of the film including: "The Fertility Dance/Living Together"; "Growing Together (Reprise)"; "If I Could Go Back"; "When Knowledge Ends (Faith Begins)"; and "I Come to You." Including special vintage featurettes, this much sought-after version of the film is packed with extras. Newly remastered.


Starring Peter Finch, John Gielgud, Liv Ullmann, Michael York, Sally Kellerman, George Kennedy & Charles Boyer, Bobby Van, Olivia Hussey & James Shigeta

Directed by Charles Jarrott
Music by Burt Bacharach
Screenplay by Larry Kramer
Story by James Hilton
Produced by Ross Hunter
Director of Photography Robert Surtees

DVD-R Details:
This product is manufactured on demand by Sony using DVD-R recordable media. Almost all DVD players can play DVD-Rs (except for some older models made before 2000) - please consult your owner's manual for formats compatible with your player. Sony DVD-Rs may not play on all computers or DVD player/recorders. This is normal. To address this we recommend viewing this product on a DVD player that does not have recording capability.
Format: DVD-R
Genre: Musicals & The Arts
Label: Columbia Pictures / Screen Classics by Request
Originally Released in: 1973
Rated:
Run Time: 2 hours, 29 minutes
Video: Color
Region: Region 1 encoding; USA & Canada.
Release Date: October 4, 2011

YEAAAAAAAA!

Read this and you will be placing your order for this one straight away..... Hysterical!


The James Hilton novel 'Lost Horizon' was first adapted by Hollywood in 1937. Thirty-five years later, Hollywood figured that audiences were just aching for a remake of the Frank Capra classic.
If producer Ross Hunter had left well enough alone, his 1973 version of 'Lost Horizon' could’ve been a perfectly adequate action/adventure. But with the addition of songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, his musical version surpasses mere mediocrity and skyrockets into cult film legend.

The adventures begin in a war torn country in Southeast Asia where a group of Americans barely make the last flight out before a military coup. On board are diplomat Peter Finch and his brother Michael York, a reporter.
Also along for the ride are George Kennedy, an engineer; Bobby Van, an “entertainer”; and neurotic, pill-popping photojournalist Sally Kellerman.

After flying all night, they realize that their plane has been hijacked. The DC-10 develops engine trouble as it climbs higher and higher over the mountains and crashes in the snowy Himalayas. The crash site is soon discovered by Sir John Gielgud who introduces himself with these memorable and ridiculously improbable words, “I am from a nearby Lamasery. My name is Chang.”

At daybreak he leads the survivors to the entrance of a secret valley that is protected on all sides by treacherous peaks. “Welcome to Shangri-La.”
Here, the magical utopia is made up of a massive outdoor set. Parts of the Lamasery and its surrounding gardens are reused sections of the castle from 'Camelot' in 1967.

Once everyone has changed into their caftans, they enjoy dinner and a floorshow. Olivia Hussey sings with vocals dubbed by Andrea Willis and twirls around in a mustard colored dress.
The films costumes by Jean Louis and set design all share the same faintly oriental/middle eastern look.

With the exception of the title song, “Share the Joy” is the first musical number to appear in 'Lost Horizon'… and nearly forty minutes of screen time have elapsed!
If the melody of Bacharach’s harpsichord and sitar infused song doesn’t wedge itself into your brain, it soon will. “Share the Joy” becomes the film’s main theme and is repeated over and over and over and over and over.

Finch confides to his brother that Shangri-La feels like home. York can’t wait to get back to civilization, but bides his time by romancing Hussey with another well scripted line, “In the outside world, you’d be a complete knockout.”

Finch spots school marm Liv Ullmann while on a walking tour with Gielgud. She teaches self-confidence to her class by singing with dubbed vocals by Diana Lee the song “The World is a Circle”. With lyrics that are filled out with “La-la-la-la’s” and child performers who seem incapable of the most basic dance steps, rhythmic arm swinging is choreographed by Hermes Pan, the entire number unravels like a drugged out version of 'The Sound Of Music'.

Meanwhile, Kellerman has to be talked down off a ledge and is soon undergoing psychotherapy with James Shigeta. “Where the hell are any answers?” she wails, “Inside me I guess.”
Yes, those lines keep coming!

Still preoccupied with thoughts of Ullmann, Finch must listen to Gielgud espouse Shangri-La’s philosophy of moderation and courtesy, “It would not be considered good manners to take a woman that another man wanted.” Definite food for thought, but nothing can prepare Finch, or any sane human being, for what he’s shown next.

During “The Festival Of The Family” Shigeta leads a parade while singing the song “Living Together, Growing Together,” a jaw-dropping ode to family values.
As a happy couple and their baby are carried around the square on a bower, they sing these incredibly clunky lyrics by Hal David, “Start with a man and you have one. Add on a woman and then you have two. Add on a child and what have you got? You’ve got more than three, you’ve got what they call a family.”
Pure musical movie HELL!

The absence of music from the film’s beginning is more than made up for as several numbers appear one after another. While on a picnic with the teacher of his dreams, Finch thinks the song “I Might Frighten Her Away.” Hilariously, Ullmann joins him and they think a duet together.

While Kellerman soaks up knowledge in Shangri-La’s extensive library, Hussey begins to think that paradise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. “Shangri-La has a definite edge over New York City, not to mention Calcutta and the rest,” Kellerman assures her before launching into “The Things I Will Not Miss”. They sing the song together, making a lyrical point and then counter point. Kellerman’s floppy body language gets positively loosey-goosey when she performs the simplistic choreography with Hussey.

Finch is granted an audience with the High Lama.
His highness Charles Boyer tells him that Shangri-La was founded hundreds of years ago by a Belgian priest who’d become lost in the mountains. The priest had to amputate his own frostbitten leg before the natives of the valley found him. Once under their care, he recovered miraculously and began to teach his own peaceful religion.

Finch finally notices that Boyer (gasp!) has only one leg. He’s that same priest and he’s still alive hundreds of years later! Boyer confides to Finch that although the magic of the valley has given him a long life, he will not live forever. Finch was brought to Shangri-La for a specific purpose. He will continue the legacy of peace and brotherly love after the High Lama has died.

This is a lot to chew on. Finch thinks another song “If I Could Go Back” and eventually does a rather poor job lip-syncing the vocals provided by Jerry Hutman. Ullmann joins him in the garden and answers his philosophical questions with “Where Knowledge Ends/Faith Begins.”

When George Kennedy discovers gold nuggets in the rivers of Shangri-La, Kellerman chastises his capitalistic instincts with the goofy song “Reflections”, a number that features more solid gold lyrics by Hal David. “Your reflection reflects on everything you do,” she warbles, “and everything you do, reflects on you.”

Kennedy is so inspired by Kellerman’s floppy dancing that he engineers a public water project. With hundreds of years of contemplation under their belts, you would think that someone in Shangri-La would’ve already solved the crop irrigation problem.
Go figure.

In order to spend more time with his ladylove, Finch enlists the help of Bobby Van as a substitute teacher. A few of the more talented kids join him in a soft-shoe routine as he lectures to the class with “Question me an Answer.” It’s easily the best song in the movie, though it’s presented in such a cloyingly cutesy way that it quickly becomes the most annoying.

Ullmann suggests that “There’s a wish for Shangri-La in everyone’s heart” while Finch ponders the existential dilemma that’s been handed to him. Inexplicably, Finch pulls a Rex Harrison and half sings/half talks the intro to “I Come to You” before lip-synching the rest.
When Finch seeks guidance from the High Lama, Boyer tells him, “I wish to place in your hands the future and destiny of Shangri-La,” then promptly drops dead.

As the people of Shangri-La mourn the passing of their spiritual leader, York convinces Finch to follow him back to civilization. Along with Hussey, the brothers follow a group of native porters back down the mountain. Far from the safety of the magical valley, Hussey grows weaker and they fall farther and farther behind. Finch and York call out to their guides, but their reverberating cries cause an avalanche that kills all the porters.

Hussey eventually reverts to her true age. York is so horrified and repulsed by her ancient visage that he melodramatically, and comedicly, throws himself off a cliff.

In a needlessly drawn out finale, Finch is found, brought back to civilization and nursed back to health. When a doctor finds his hospital bed empty, he explains, in case you hadn’t caught it the first million times, that, “Shangri-La represents the ultimate way of life”.

A sadder but wiser Finch trudges back up the mountain and through the snow to his new home. A magical place where the sun always shines. A place where you never grow old. A place where actors who can’t sing and dance… do it anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


By the late sixties, nearly every major Hollywood studio was hemorrhaging money thanks in part to grandiose musical misfires like 'Doctor Dolittle' in 1967, 'Star!' in 1968 and 'Hello Dolly' in 1969.
Fans of truly awful cinema should rejoice that, despite evidence that audiences were no longer interested in bloated movie musicals, Columbia Pictures and producer Ross Hunter went ahead with 'Lost Horizon' anyway.
Even better, they filled their lavish musical remake with an all-star cast that couldn’t sing or dance.

Casting popular but vocally challenged actors in musical roles certainly wasn’t anything new in Hollywood. There are countless examples of this practice (including classics like 'West Side Story' in 1961 and 'My Fair Lady' in 1964 but 'Lost Horizon' took this tradition to new lows.
Thankfully we’re spared the sight (and sound) of numbers performed by George Kennedy and Sir John Gielgud.

In the early 90’s Pioneer released a special edition laserdisc that reinstated several songs that had been cut from the film during its original theatrical release. Though these missing sequences were found in the Columbia vaults, there are still scenes (among them the infamous “fertility dance”) that are considered lost forever. Copies of 'Lost Horizon' can occasionally be found on eBay.

Peter Finch best summed up the 'Lost Horizon' experience when, at the end of the film, his character awakens in the hospital and explains that, “I don’t know whether I’ve been mad and am now sane, or sane for a time and now mad again.”

He had it right. 'Lost Horizon' is an undeniably insane experience that shouldn’t be missed.

Brilliant piece Mama, just brilliant. I simply CANNOT wait! Now i can ditch the copy i got orf the telly....with ads.......LOL Just to make it even LONNNGGGGER. lol

Even The Boyfriend was a pretty terrible movie. It has moments when it is good but really it is about an hour too long. Too much padding. Don't forget, it too was a bomb.

Oooh I hope this gets a Region 1 release as well. I haven't seen it since it used to show up on a cheap Canadian movie channel in the early 90s. As a big Bacharach/David fan, I admit I kinda love the soundtrack CD--half of it is genuinely awful btu the other half is actually pretty good, and the awful stuff falls into the so bad it's good category for me. It is kinda too bad that THIS was the only other full musical that they did aside from Promises, Promises (not counting the TV musical On the Flip Side.

From what I remember, it truly is a head scratcher of a musical, but I wouldn't say the worst ever.

Unfortunately, every movie has its fans, and I am one of this one's. Eagerly awaiting this.

Eric, Darling, it is Region 1.
x

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hCE8aIYHvY&feature=related

I had the unforgettable privilege of seeing the long cut of 'Lost Horizon' just days after it opened in my local Odeon. It was 7.30pm screening in an almost empty 1500 seat cinema. I saw it again just weeks later, when after it was cut, at the huge Odeon Leicester Square along with just 30 or 40 others!

The day before it opened, the showbiz world had no bigger names than producer Ross Hunter, songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and star Liv Ullmanm, who
were all riding great waves of popularity at the time.

Bacharach and David's Broadway debut with the hit musical, 'Promises, Promises' had shown they could write songs for characters and situations, and there was incredible hype for this huge film.

The day after the film opened, the story was completely different.
Bacharach and David split up, and Ross Hunter worked mostly in television from
then on.
Suddenly the world saw the ridiculousness of the Bacharach pop tunes being sung in faraway Tibet, often in dubbed voices.

The infamous, but hardly ever seen by the public, Fertility Dance was truly hilarious, the audience I saw it with were howling with laughter.
I can't wait to see it this sequence again, it was cut with in days of its release, the distributors were given instructions to pull all copies in and the sequence was edited out immediately from all prints.

After James Shigeta's shakily groovy baritone rendition of "Living Together, Growing Together" finishes, the original print then led to a group of very mature male dancers popping out from behind some screens or shields, wearing only salmon-colored loin clothes and sneakers. They jazz dance with Olivia Hussey, ultimately hoisting her aloft, which creates a funny silhouette in the sky since Hussey was very pregnant and was really showing. In a strange way, this particular 'fertility' dance therefore seems very effective! Later in the film there's a duet between Hussey and Sally Kellerman in the library which also shows just how ripe she is, despite how many books they keep trying to stack in front of her.

Learning can be PAINFUL!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEumqGgnLYo&feature=related

Brace yourselves!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC1C1L5jOHE&feature=related

Not a dry eye in the house
...for laughing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOFIm2HDJjE&feature=related

These were days when movie musicals used to have souvenir brochures on sale. I still have my ones from 'Mary Poppins', 'Bedknob's and Broomsticks', 'Quilp', 'Fiddler On The Roof', 'Song Of Norway' and 'Lost Horizon' of course!

.....and this was another stage to film stinker from a few years earlier, 1970.






This was probably the top right hand corner nail in the coffin of Hollywood movie musicals. LOL

I almost forgot about Song of Norway. Stinker indeed. Wouldn't mind seeing it again though

LOL
I don't think the demand is out there for 'Song Of Norway' on DVD as much as it is/was for 'Lost Horizon'!