kols Yet Wayne, Loren, Brazzi all together and at the top of their form and status as stars!And not just Wayne, Loren and Brazzi but a script by Hecht and Presnell and cinematography by Cardiff. Should have been a blockbuster.Instead a studio-like programmer focused on a Saharan adventure and getting everything wrong. For example, making Timbuktu a part of French Morocco, complete with belly-dancers and corrupt Prefect. And a hackneyed plot, recycled from everything from She to King Salomon's Mines. Apart from Wayne, Loren, Hecht and Cardiff, this movie has absolutely nothing going for it.Except for Wayne, Loren, Hecht and Cardiff.As ridiculous as it is, Legend of the Lost is very much a vehicle highlighting all of the principles at their best. Wayne as Joe January (are you serious?) pulls off Hecht's tongue-in-check dialogue effortlessly as well as his character's jovial lechery, with Loren doing the same as a sexy-as-hell bad girl, flashing a lot of leg and coming just short of repeating her Boy on a Dolphin wardrobe malfunction. All the while projecting a serious intelligence as well as sex. Even Brazzi makes his character dramatically believable. Add to all of that the energetic extras and you've got the makings of a great Graphic Comic.Which, I think, is the standard Legend of the Lost should be judged by. Especially when you add Cardiff's cinematography, which even many of the negative reviews praise. The visuals, editing and production values are outstanding.Before its time or, more likely, a happy accident, Legend of the Lost seems to have suffered more from audience expectation than its success at doing exactly what it set out to do. I don't think it was ever meant to be anything except a fun romp through a territory already well trod and familiar, as such, to its audience. What we would call today a 'Little' movie.And that's where, I believe, all of the negative reviews come from. When you've got Superstars as principles, especially in the 50's, you're going to expect The Ten Commandments or Gone with the Wind, not Harold and Maude. Reacting according.So, in my opinion, Legend of the Lost is a small gem worthy of serious reconsideration. Suspend your disbelief, dump the Big Stars expectations and just watch the visuals (the score's pretty good too) and you might be rewarded.A final note: the movie begins with the Prefect marching down a street followed by his entourage, each element of which is separated, given 2-3 seconds to drive home the point, as the Prefect inspects his territory (which includes its own little intriguing snippets) and finally meets up with the Important Foreigner (Brazzi). As a tone setter, I thought it was brilliant.Correction and blame the lame Web algorithms: I tried French Timbuktu and French Mali, coming up goose eggs on both. Turns out the French mistook Mali for the Sudan (not a big surprise) soooo .... The French were in charge of Mali, Timbuktu and a lot of other West African territories in 1957. Even so, Timbuktu still never looked like Morocco, French or no French.

freemanpatrick7 I must have seen this one before because there were a couple scenes that seemed familiar. But going into it I would have sworn it was new to me.This rare gem is not one that usually comes to mind when one thinks of John Wayne movies and it's unfortunate because it's a good one.There were parts, to be sure, that just didn't work. For example, there's just no way I'm going to buy any red blooded man being such an asshole to the likes of Sofia Loren, as Joe January was throughout most of the film.Also, Paul Bonnard's character arc was just too quick and sudden. But over all I enjoyed the film. Fans of either John Wayne or Sofia Loren will probably like it also.I do think it was pointless to shoot on location in Lybia, of all places, since all the exterior shots could just as effectively been done in the deserts of the South West, like Glamis, or Death Valley.

pjmille I loved this movie and after getting my first DVD player, ordered the DVD as one of my first. I love the story, music and cinematography. It transports me to the desert every time I watch it. I disagree that there's no chemistry between Wayne and Loren. After all they are almost at each other's throats up to the point when the lost city is discovered. He disdains her and believes she is manipulating Bonnard. When she follows and joins them in the desert, his troubles are doubled. He has one more person to look out for and must ration--even further--food and water. They begin to bond as Brazzi begins to go mad.I need to correct one commenter who describes the skeletons of the prostitute, Bonnard's father, and the guide. The guide is the one with the knife in his back and the prostitute embraced him--not Bonnard's father. Bonnard's father is the single figure off to the side with the bullet to the head. The letter found in the prostitute's purse is from Bonnard's father. The father was obviously in love with the prostitute and promised to shower her with jewels. She apparently was in love with the guide as she died with her arms around him instead of the father. Since the guide died with a knife in the back, he was the one to die first.All in all, I love this movie, and enjoy seeing Wayne in a different movie than the usual western. I would also recommend two other Wayne pictures in which he is excellent. Horse Soldiers and North to Alaska.

jswollen If you enjoyed the scenery in this film, particularly the Roman Ruins of Leptis Magna, plan a trip to Libya to see this amazing piece of history. The picture in the database of Sophia Loren embracing a stone female face was shot in one of the theaters at Leptis. (It is one of the Gorgon Heads, of which there are over 100 still in tact.) The baths are still in very good shape, and the seaport and coliseum alone are worth the trip.In addition to the ruins at Leptis, there are also many other sites to visit in Libya that would make just as tremendous a backdrop to a film. In 2005, Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep were rumored to have visited the city of Ghadames, a Berber village built underground. This city housed up to 10,000 people, and is built around a large natural spring in he Sahara. Location scouts be appraised! Sabratha, villa Cyrene, Cyrenica and many many other sites are the sorts of backdrops that could truly add character to any film. (January 2007)