Posts from ethanedwards in thread „Legend of the Lost (1957)“

Just watched this again, and haven't changed my opinion
that it's still a mess of a movie, a movie which at the time
Duke could have done without making.

Duke had a few flops before and after this one,
and Legend of the Lost didn't help!!

This time around I watched it in different light, must be getting older,
and found it entertaining in an another way.

OK, there was zero chemistry between, not only Sophia Loren,
but Duke and Rossano didn't spark either.

Entertaining in another way? yes!

Observations really, like

It was twenty week return trip, and they never changed clothes!!
Apart from Sophia, bathing once, no one washed or shaved!

What did they eat and when??
Duke mentioned they had a bag of flour
and now they had some water, Sophia would make some biscuits, Wow!!
Did they not have anything else?
When they camped, they did nothing, no coffee, bacon, eggs??

Duke took along one bottle of liquor, yet throughout the trek
he was still constantly downing the same bottle,
oh and then another bottle appeared, then a half bottle??

To cap it all, Sophia hits Duke over the head with a frying pan,
and Duke has to do his silly, cross-eyed ' hit over the head' look.
just about OK in something like Donovan's Reef,
but Legends of the Lost is hardly a comedy so
Duke's over acting is sadly out of place.

At the end, Sophia and Duke were rescued by passing tribesmen
but did they recover the buried treasure, or not??
It was buried right by Rossano's body.
Don't tell me after all their sweat and toil they went off and left it!!!
Did they hope to make Legend of the Lost-2,
go back and recover the treasure, heaven forbid!

The location however was stunning
Duke's Movie Locations- Libya

Overall though,it's observations like these that made the movie, unbelievable and silly

Quote from arthurarnell

Hi

According to the Fred Landesman John Wayne Filmography the outdoor shots were filmed over a period of five weeks at Zliten, Leptis Magna and Gadames. Interior scenes were as already said shot in Rome's Cinecitta Studios during March and April.


Regards

Arthur

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Thanks Arthur, got me scurrying to my books,
and T Bone it looks like Gadames, was a village,
in an isolated oasis, 400 miles, from Tripoli,
but near to the ruins of Leptis Magna.

Accordingly, I'll edit the initial post.

Quote from Tbone

Does anyone know where the scenes of the lost city were filmed?
Was just wondering about that today.

Thanks,

Hi TBone,
In the opening post I have this:-

Filming Locations

Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy
(studio)

Libya.

But exactly sure where.

Legend of the Lost is a 1957 Italian-American adventure film directed by Henry Hathaway,
and starring John Wayne, Sophia Loren, and Rossano Brazzi.
The location shooting for the film took place near Tripoli, Libya.

Now here's a mess of a film, if ever there was one!!
Not Duke's worse, but down there with the bad ones!
From the very beginning, the script was wrong, and no one could change it, for the better.
Location work in the desert, proved problematic for everyone.
The interaction between the co-stars, didn't work, mainly
because, the difference in accents, tended to stilt the flow of dialogue.
Duke was OK, but did seem oddly our of place.
Sophie Loren, who was supposed to add, box office return, sex appeal,

According to Hathaway,

Quote

She was a one-dimensional actress.It's just the beauty.She has no depth.Never did, never will have.

Well there was very little chemistry, between them and although she liked Duke,
he disliked, her, mainly because of his moralistic issue, of her having an affair,
with a married man, namely her co-star, Rossano Brazzi.

Loren said of Duke,

Quote

Big, authoritative, gruff, but polite, and a pro, through and through.....

The production was a fiasco, right up to the final crowd scenes.
Rentals made a small profit for Batjac, but not anywhere near what it expected.
Duke was in a tight corner with the studios, who were hoping his star
was not fading.

Added to the failure of The Wings of Eagles, and now Legend of the Lost
and the untimely release of the savaged Jet Pilot, Duke was badly in need of a hit!!

Duke's error in thinking that they had made a good picture, proved a disaster and lost money.
No one could overcome the weakness of a contrived script,
that tried to combine sex, sand and sway, but ended up a lethargic treasure hunt!
It would probably be easier walking across the Sahara Desert, than watching this film

User Review

Quote

Rain In The Desert
1 March 2007 | by bkoganbing (Buffalo, New York)

Legend of the Lost paired John Wayne and Sophia Loren for their one and only teaming on the silver screen. Too bad it wasn't in a much better film than this barely disguised rip off of Rain.

The setting for this film is French West Africa as it was then known in 1957 before it became several new African countries in a few years. The Duke is Joe January, a freebooting American expatriate who hires out as a guide on the desert.

Rossano Brazzi wants to hire Wayne as a guide to take him to a fabled lost city that he swears his father found out in the middle of the Sahara. The father disappeared on a return trip and Brazzi is also looking to find out what happened to him.

In Timbucktu both of them encounter Sophia Loren who's a working girl. She's got the both men going, but it's Brazzi she really loves. Brazzi's a spiritual sort of fellow, talking about doing some good for the native population. When they go out in the desert, she trails after them.

They find the ruins of what was an old Roman city, bet you didn't know the Romans got that far south. Brazzi also learns what happened to his father with a letter found on his remains and two other human remains and some forensic conclusions. For the rest of the story if you've seen any adaption of Somerset Maugham's Rain you know what's going to happen.

I have to say that on the plus side Jack Cardiff's color cinematography of the Libyan desert because that's where the film was shot is breathtakingly beautiful. The rest of it is kind of silly. Forgetting the fact that Sophia with two men on the desert is going to lead to obvious complications, I cannot believe that Wayne was taking booze on the trip. In his role here and in real life Wayne was a prodigious drinker. But alcohol except some small amount for medicinal emergencies is an outright hazard on the desert. The sun will dehydrate you that much quicker if you keep drinking alcohol as well as water. Not to mention traveling by day instead of by night.

My conclusion is that since this was a Batjac production, John Wayne wanted to do something that could be classified as arty. Since he had already done well in The Long Voyage Home, I'm not sure what he felt he had to prove.

I do wonder what Somerset Maugham must have thought when he saw this film though.

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INFORMATION FROM IMDb

Plot Summary
Paul Bonnard arrives in Timbuktu in search of a guide to escort him into the Sahara desert. American Joe January takes the job despite misgivings about Bonnard's plans. Dita, a prostitute who has been deeply moved by what appears to be Bonnard's spiritual nature, follows the two men into the desert. Eventually the trio arrives in the ruins of a lost city, where Bonnard hopes to find the treasure his father sought years earlier before disappearing. But what Bonnard finds alters him in unexpected ways, with tragic results.
Written by Jim Beaver

Full Cast
John Wayne .... Joe January
Sophia Loren .... Dita
Rossano Brazzi .... Paul Bonnard
Kurt Kasznar .... Prefect Dukas
Sonia Moser .... Girl
Angela Portaluri .... Girl
Ibrahim El Hadish .... Galli Galli
Marsha Hunt .... (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Ben Hecht
Robert Presnell Jr.

Original Music
Angelo Francesco Lavagnino

Cinematography
Jack Cardiff

Stunts
Chuck Hayward .... stunts (uncredited)
Terry Wilson .... stunts (uncredited)

Trivia
The Spanish title for this film was "Arenas de Muerte", which literally translates to "Sands of Death". The Spanish poster only features a closeup of the face of Sophia Loren and her name comes above John Wayne's. She was a much bigger star in Spain than Wayne was in 1957.

John Wayne broke his leg during filming.

The part of Bonnard was first offered to James Mason.

Goofs
# Revealing mistakes: When Wayne and Loren are wandering across the wasteland of sand, there are clearly footprints where there shouldn't be.

# Factual errors: Twice Joe January refers to Solomon and Bathsheba. It should have been Solomon and Sheba. Bathsheba was David's interest.

Memorable Quotes

Filming Locations
Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy
(studio)
Zliten and Gadames,a village,
in an isolated oasis, 400 miles, from Tripoli,
but near to the ruins of Leptis Magna.
Libya

Watch the Trailer:-

[extendedmedia]