Legend of the Lost (1957) [DVD]

Movie / Show Details

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The good news is, one of John Wayne’s least-known films has been restored to widescreen splendor. The bad news is, there’s a reason Legend of the Lost has gone mostly unshown: it’s a grievously misbegotten movie. Oh, the credits get you jumping: Wayne and international love goddess Sophia Loren under the direction of Henry Hathaway, with a Ben Hecht script and Technicolor camerawork by Jack (The Red Shoes) Cardiff. But Wayne is miscast as a raffish mercenary hired to guide French spiritualist Rossano Brazzi into the Sahara, where Brazzi’s father disappeared searching for a lost city. And nothing sparks between the Duke and Loren, as a Timbuktu prostitute-pickpocket who joins the expedition because Brazzi speaks to her soul. There’s little action, much turgid dialogue, and a jarring mix of Libyan locations with soundstage scenes shot back in Rome. Add a music score that sounds as if it belongs on a sci-fi film and you’ve got one bizarre movie. Still, Wayne completists should check it out, and Cardiff’s cinematography is, as usual, ravishing. –Richard T. Jameson

Product Description

Told against the sweeping panoramas of the Sahara desert, this star-studded epic features an exoticmix of action, suspense and romance. Famed for its ‘stunning (The Hollywood Reporter) location cinematography, Legend of the Lost delivers a caravan of excitementwith the indomitable John Wayne leading the way. Wayne is Joe January, a hard-drinking, hard-living guide. When Paul Bonnard (Rossano Brazzi) hires him to find his father and a legendary lost treasure, the two set out into the isolated wasteland of the North African desert. Joining them is Dita (Sophia Loren), a prostitute desperate to find a new life who comes between both men as they battle for survival and theirsouls.