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. JamesonMore...
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