anne-34498 I don't understand the awful reviews for this beautiful film. Whats with people? I recorded it to keep and love it. Uplifting and a real feel good film with inspiring philosophy,lovely songs and humour. It gives me hope among the uncertainties of this chaotic world. A contrast to the rubbish blockbuster violent films which are all too prevalent. A real story,albeit a fantasy of an ideal civilization.

gmonger What makes a musical, is the music. The music in this is excellent. Burt Bacharach and Hal David seldom miss and here they hit on every song. Reflections, The World is a Circle and I Might Frighten Her Away being great songs and routines. I recall, this movie bombed, was panned, by fan and critic alike, when it came out. At the time, the 70's, musicals were not a hot topic. Unless you were making a gritty, realistic, musical, like Cabaret, you were going against the grain. Dancing and prancing people seemed strange in this time of Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy and grittier films of the era. The movie was mistimed to be sure, because there isn't anything more ridiculous in this, than any of the great musicals of years past, be it prancing, knife wielding, gang members, to store clerks, to lions, to scare crows.I am sure the great actors, known so much more so for drama, than a musical, threw off the public. Seeing Ullmann, Finch, Kellerman, York, and Kennedy especially, so often playing the heavy, in lighter roles was different. But guess what? They are all great actors and pull it off completely.If you have read any of my reviews you know I review lesser known or disparaged movies that I feel deserve a lot better fate. Why review, for the one millionth time, Casablanca, Spartacus, Network, or Gone With the Wind? Guess what? They are great and considered so for a very real reason.Lost Horizon, on it's own is one of the best musicals made and a great telling of the classic story. The B & W, Ronald Coleman version , as good as it is , is flawed due to the lost footage and the scars the film has due to it's repair. This musical version, is the best version of Lost Horizon, I recommend giving it a try . I guarantee you will be whistling the songs soon after.

info-12388 I wont belabour the plot: if you don't know it by now, then you've been living under a rock for these past 80 years.But what truly amazed me on watching this is how much it lifts — in terms of adaptation, photography, entire chunks of dialogue — right out of the Colman version. It's as though someone sent Larry Kramer (the sorta screenwriter) the script used in the 30s and told him to rewrite... but not too much. So a couple of characters are revisited — the paleontologist becomes a stand up comedian, the investor becomes an engineer — but everything else is taken, almost shot for shot and line for line, from the earlier film. In some cases — such as the cave at the end where (SPOILER) the young girl's actual age is revealed — it's like they even went so far as to use the same set.And the sad thing is that the earlier one was no masterful adaption itself: talky, almost proselytizing at times, it rearranges things in HIlton's novel to suit some unseen agenda — and Ross Hunter blithely continues down whatever path that might have been, making many of the same mistakes, but on a larger, grander scale: for example, the lamasery in Colman's version looks like it's right out of the NY World's Fair of 1939, while the one in Hunter's film, while a simple re-build of the castle from CAMELOT, looks larger, grander, and much more incongruous for a Himalayan valley. The musical numbers... sigh. They range from the moderately acceptable to the egregiously awful. The "Fertility Dance" in the middle of "Living Together" is one of those "You really have to see it to believe it" moments, while Bobby Van's "Question Me an Answer", despite its American-centric approach, almost makes the cut as reasonably fun and enjoyable. To be honest, he looks like the only one there having a good time. The rest appear, at times, downright embarrassed to be taking part. But if anything else, the musical numbers, inserted with all the finesse of a sledgehammer, underscore how much this thing owes to not the book but the previous film. Cut them out and watch it with the Colman side by side, and you will be amazed at how audacious the theft is. I'm giving it a three only for Van and Boyer, whose scenes as the High Lama are at least watchable.Someday, someone will do a film of this book that actually rises to the lovely brilliance of the original source material. This one, sadly, is not it.

tim-oliver I have just enjoyed seeing this long forgotten gem on Blu-Ray, in a marvellous crisp and colourful wide-screen presentation, with DTS stereo surround sound and I loved every minute of it. It's like a crazy LSD trip (I imagine!), which makes you very relaxed and feel just great.I first saw this film in 1973, as an 11 year old on board a Mediterranean cruise ship. The on board cinema was just like the real thing and I watched Lost Horizon at least two or three times during the voyage. I also enjoyed seeing the new Bond Live And Let Die and the wonderful thriller Endless Night. I still love all these films and they bring back happy memories of a simpler (and wackier) time.Of course, Lost Horizon is most definitely a guilty pleasure. If you did not grow up in the 70's, it must come across as a very dated and very odd load of old rubbish. The film starts off as action adventure and suddenly changes into a very strange kind of musical, with a score which was very 1973, just like some of the god-awful clothes worn by Michael York and Bobby (please don't dance) Van.The main Shangri-La set looks like a 1970's Burbank Hilton Resort and the obvious studio set interiors are very much over lit. They look like old sets re-used from the Bill Shatner Star Trek shows.The Direction it very old fashioned and lazy. The actors move across the screen, but the camera appears to stay static. However, the worst thing in Lost Horizon is most definitely the hideous choreography from Hermes Pan. The worst I have ever seen.However, the cast is very likable and some of the songs are really quite pleasant and catchy in a very early 70's way. Looking back now, in 2013, the idea of Shangri-La has never been more attractive and I would love to buy my one-way ticket any time they come available on line. Until then, I can take my trip from this wonderful new Blu-Ray disc.Yes, the film is flawed, particularly in the wasted opportunity to direct the musical numbers in any stylish way, but I absolutely love it. I can't wait to see it again!