Well, dear readers, it looked good on paper, I’m sure. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it looked good on paper, I’m sure. I mean, produced by Ross Hunter, based on a classic novel and film, with a musical score by the hottest songwriting duo around, Bacharach and David. How could it fail? Let me count the ways. They’d already tried to musicalize Lost Horizon on Broadway in the 1950s – the show was called Shangri-La. With a book by none other than James Hilton himself (the novel’s author) and Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, music by Harry Warren and lyrics by the three book writers, direction by Albert Marre and choreography by Donald Saddler, and a cast that included Martyn Green, Jack Cassidy, Alice Ghostly and Dennis King, the musical didn’t exactly take Broadway by storm. In fact it ran exactly twenty-one performances. In the early 1970s the time seemed right for Lost Horizon, what with the Viet Nam war and disillusionment running rife. But the big, lumbering mess that was delivered to audiences in 1973 received critical brickbats, did lousy business at the box-office (there is one person – ONE person – on the Internet who goes from board to board trying to convince everyone that Lost Horizon was somehow a moneymaker for Columbia – he is wrong, but his obsession with this film knows no limit), and managed the incredible feat of breaking up Bacharach and David. What went wrong? Well, you’d have to start with the decision to let Charles Jarrott direct – whatever strength he had as a director (and I personally don’t think he had much), he had never directed a musical before and simply had no idea how to shoot one. That’s kind of fatal, right there. He clearly didn’t know enough about musicals to stop Mr. Hunter from foisting upon him Mr. Hermes Pan to choreograph. Mr. Pan was a long-time collaborator of Mr. Fred Astaire, the their work together was amazing. But it becomes equally clear when you watch any film that Mr. Pan worked on without Mr. Astaire, that Mr. Astaire was the maker of the magic, or somehow he sparked in Pan something Pan could not spark in himself.
Pan had already provided some pretty bad choreography for Ross Hunter’s film version of Flower Drum Song. But by the time of Lost Horizon he was the worst possible choice. And then there’s the cast – filled with good actors, few of whom had ever done a musical, few of who actually sang (most were dubbed), and none of whom were exactly stars. Peter Finch is earnest and fine in the lead, and Liv Ullmann is very pretty as the female lead – both are dubbed, of course. Sally Kellerman sings but doesn’t have much to play in the Larry Kramer screenplay (which isn’t THAT bad), Bobby Van is just irritating the entire time (not his fault – just a horribly written role), George Kennedy seems embarrassed to be there, and on it goes. John Gielgud escapes with dignity, and Charles Boyer is okay as the High Lama. But Jarrott’s direction of the musical numbers is so leaden and so downright awful, that the film never has a chance. Neither he nor his editor apparently know what a musical beat is and there’s not one shot that actually seems like a number was designed for the camera. Mr. Robert Wise and his choreographers on The Sound of Music designed those numbers for FILM and that’s why they’re exhilarating and beautiful to watch. Here we just get long, boring takes of people doing whatever choreography Mr. Pan can muster. And Mr. Hunter’s garish taste doesn’t help matters any.
So, question me an answer: Why, after all this time, does this film have its defenders and why, even for people like me who understand that it’s just bad, does the film continue to fascinate and even be enjoyable on a certain level. Well, the story is timeless. That part’s good. The camerawork is lovely – Robert Surtees. But considering the fact that this is the film that broke the back of Bacharach and David, that’s what the fascination is, I think. Because half the songs are really good. People forget that the title song charted, as did Living Together, Growing Together. But several ballads are touching, and I’m sorry, but I do love the music for The World Is a Circle and with a great director and choreographer, and some actual choreography, that number could have been great. There are some indefensible duds in the score – no way around that. It does feature perhaps the worst Bacharach and David song ever written – Question Me an Answer. I have tried for forty years to understand what the lyrics mean and I have failed completely. But, here’s the bottom line: Every time I watch the damn movie I can’t stop – I watch it straight through, warts and all, every time.
All that by way of saying I got a sneak peek at the new Twilight Time Blu and Ray of Lost Horizon last night. And I watched the whole damn thing. And somehow, and I know it’s wrong, I kind of got some enjoyment out of it. If you have the DVD of this transfer you’ll know what to expect. The Blu-ray looks very good and the color is very accurate. It’s not the sharpest or most beautiful transfer you’ll see, but it’s very nice and probably better than the film deserves. The stereo sound is great and ALL of the DVD extras are ported over, including the demos, plus you get an isolated score, which is a huge bonus for this film because the absolute thing that succeeds in every way is Mr. Bacharach’s background score (orchestrated by the great Shuken and Hayes) – it’s brilliant, sounds great, and is reason enough to buy the disc, which I highly recommend to anyone who is interested to see how a failure of a film can remain interesting and fascinating forty years hence. I also took a gander at the other Twilight Time release, The Blue Lagoon and it is spectacular. The movie is what it is, but this transfer is so beautiful and lush and the Basil Poledouris score sounds incredible. It’s so sharp, in fact, that you will see a lot more of Mr. Atkins and Miss Shields (body double for her) than you ever saw in the theater. Gorgeous-looking.
I also watched (busy night) a screener I’d gotten in the mail yesterday to a film that’s coming out in December called The Impossible, which follows one true-life family’s ordeal with the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. It’s a harrowing film and the tsunami recreation is unbelievably riveting and well done. It was, I believe, the worst tsunami in history, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The film really just concentrates on one family torn asunder who through sheer perseverance, survive. The acting is terrific – Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, and a child actor (interesting in light of yesterday’s topic) who gives a fantastic performance – I would not be surprised if the kid gets an Oscar nomination. The score by Fernando Valesquez is also top-notch. The direction was, for me, a little fussy and “now” and I just wish these people would trust the material and stop doing these things that do nothing but call attention to the DIRECTOR rather than the characters and the story. But, it’s just a nitpick of mine and I think most will find the film very compelling.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Don’t I have notes to write? I do and here they come. Yesterday was a fine little day. I got up after eight hours of sleep, I had some telephonic conversations, then I had to grab a bite to eat before the day got too far along. I had my Cobb salad and no bagel, then came home. Then Mr. Nick Redman came by, concurrently with the East Coast Singer and Mr. Lanny Meyers. Since they were kind of hungry (I wish I’d known), we went to a local eatery and did our initial work there. Having eaten, I just had a slice of pumpkin pie. At the restaurant I came up with a running order for the show we’re putting together – the CD order I knew wouldn’t work at all for the show. Then I picked up some packages, then we came back and I had her sing through everything in the order I’d come up with. It seemed to work fine, although I may switch-up some stuff in the middle portion – we’ll see how it feels today. I gave some notes about endings for the show, and we made one little cut in one number. I’m going to do the bulk of the directing and staging via Skype, when they’re back in Washington in a rehearsal room. That will be interesting and hopefully it will work. Then they left, and I listened to two new partial masters for upcoming projects. I then sent all the singers their sheet music and mp3s for the Kritzerland show, and then I did my viewing.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because the telephonic device will be ringing at eight and I must get as much beauty sleep before then as I can.
Today, I have a telephonic meeting at eight, and then the Singer and the Pianist are coming here at eleven. I’ll do some banking prior to that. We’ll see how I’m feeling as to whether we dive into rehearsal or eat first. But we will rehearse as much as we can. In the evening, I’ll go to our Outside the Box rehearsal and see what the choreographer has come up with so I can get some ideas about how I want to shoot the three numbers she’s doing.
Tomorrow is our first day of shooting – we do the set-up scenes – one at The Federal and one at my house. We should hopefully be done by four, and then we’ll have one final LA rehearsal with The Singer and the Pianist. Friday is the long musical numbers shoot – we arrive and set up at nine and will be out of there by six, after which I will eat whatever I damn well please. The weekend I’m relaxing, writing my contextual commentary for the Kritzerland show, and maybe working on some more liner notes.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a phone meeting, do banking, rehearse and eat or eat and rehearse, then attend an Outside the Box rehearsal. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall question me an answer.