Musicals
are hit or miss with me, sometimes I dig em... other times not so
much. So I was pretty damn curious when I popped in the Twilight Time
Blu-ray release of 1973's “Lost Horizon”. Before seeing the film
I already knew that it was a massive failure for the studio and was
pretty much a joke in Hollywood. I can happily say I enjoyed this
wonderfully inept musical. Yes, it's a bad film but with a lot of
good stuff in it.
LH
is a musical remake of the classic 1937 Frank Kapra film which starred
Ronald Colman and Jane Wyatt. That film by all means is a
masterpiece of it's time and still holds up to this day. Sadly the
musical remake of which I'm reviewing didn't have the talented Kapra
involved. But they did bring in a heavy weight to do the music and it
was none other then the legendary Burt Bacharah. On top of that you have
the acting... well singing talents of Peter Finch, Liv Ullman, Sall Kellerman, George Kennedy, Olivia Hussey, Michael Yorke, Bobby Van and last but certainly not least the late great British thesp John Gielgud.
That
is certainly not a cast to scoff at, in all actuality it's probably
one of the finest casts assembled for a film from the 1970's. With that
sheer amount of talent on screen with Burt Bacharach doing the music
how could you go wrong? Well you apparently everything that could
went wrong, did go wrong during production. Michael Yorke who to this
day is still a very talented actor is embarrassed by this picture.
Not surprising since all the actors are trained thespians... not
trained singers. Just look at the latest production of “Le Miz”
to see that just because you can act, doesn't mean your ass can sing.
I
haven't mentioned a plot but it's good because they pretty much
followed the original film scene for scene. But director Charles Jarrot is no Frank Capra. The plot concerns a group of Europeans who escape a war torn China only to have their plane crash land into the Himalayan mountains. They are soon rescued by the locals and brought to the Utopian-like village of "Shangra-La".
Fun premise for sure, but you'd be better off watching the original film or even an episode of the TV series The Prisoner (similar concept in some regards).
The film is packed to the brim with bad 1970's melodrama and awful singing all of which gives the film a sort of hammy campy charm.
Sadly though, no-one really shines in the film. I was hoping that at the very least that at least one of the members of the cast could carry a tune. Nope, no such luck with this one. Even the costumes and sets look alarmingly cheap for a production that cost 12 millions bucks to make. Certainly not chump change back in 73.
This
film certainly falls into the category of so bad it's kind of good.
But I can only see fans of the film or musical buffs wanting to pick
this one up.
Despite
the film being a turkey with a capital T the Blu-ray certainly isn't.
Twilight Time must of put a lot of time and effort into this release
because it's really outstanding on all fronts. First up Twilight Time
has wisely decided to release the full uncut version of the film
which clocks in at 150 minutes.
The
1080p AVC encoded transfer looks stunning, all the details are vivid
and lush. No softness here folks, this Blu-ray really does pop with
color. The 5.1 DTS MA audio track is nothing short of a revelation, I
don't even think the audio sounded this good on the films original
(Al-bit brief) theatrical run.
Extras
include a 10 minute (vintage) promo featurette, twenty or so minutes
of additional Bacharach song demos, an alternate take on the “I
come to you” song and dance number and some trailers and TV spots.
Fans
of this film will fall in love with Twilight Time's release of it.
I'm sure it has never looked or sounded this good in the past. But
this musical is to campy for this reviewers tastes. Hardcore fans BUY
IT, musical fan RENT IT, average Joe? SKIP IT.
But
major props to the folks at Twilight Time for really knocking this
release out of the park in terms of the audio/visual aspect.
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