That was a whole lotta notes on LOST HORIZON. Might very well be one of the best summations we're likely to read on this film.
I wish I could remember why I didn't go to it when it opened. What kept me away in March 1973? I have no idea now. My first memory of seeing any part of it was on some horrible local TV channel in Cincinnati while on a visit to my folks. It was commercial-interrupted and pan-and-scanned to death, and the first musical number to appear after we tuned to the channel was, I kid you not, Question Me an Answer. I sat there, horrified, but unable to look away.
Years later, with a borrowed laserdisc (the good one), I watched it and was somewhat amused, but it wasn't until a couple of years ago when we had a good clear DVD, and I had a good screen to watch it on, that it finally made some sense and started becoming -- dare I say it? -- "lovable". Now I could appreciate the good in what I was seeing, and it even seemed I had "grown into" the music -- most of the songs, and the score itself, were quite lovely. Like MR BK says, it is a bad film rife with bad decisions. But it is eye and ear candy of a fairly high order which can reward one when taken in the right dose at the right time. And even so, I know that simply won't work for a lot of people. But I'm glad it finally did for me, because the film can finally claim its rightful place on the List of Guilty Pleasures.
