Blast from the Past: One of John Wayne and Sophia Loren’s Worst Pictures.
My Book about John Wayne
One of John Wayne’s worst films, the pseudo-adventure Legend of the Lost marks his only collaboration with Italian and international star Sophia Loren.
Grade: C (*1/2* out of *****)
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1957 movie poster
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It was produced and directed by Henry Hathaway, who had made several films with Wayne, including the star’s only Oscar role, in True Grit, in 1969.
Location shooting for the film took place near Tripoli, Libya, but even a master cinemtographer like Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus) can’t rescue a silly, preposterously-plotted adventure, at the center of which there’s a bizarre romantic triangle.
A dark shadow looms over the picture by the superb 1950 adventure, King Solomon’s Mines, starring Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr.
In a role similar to Granger’s, Wayne plays tough and experienced guide named Joe January. Joe reluctantly joins a Saharan treasure hunting expedition led by Paul Bonnard (Rossano Brazzi, severely miscast), a man obsessed with confirming the claim of his dead father to have found a lost city.
Meanwhile, Sophia Loren, in her first Hollywood phase, plays Dita, an exotic woman of dubious reputation, who becomes infatuated with Paul, not least because he shows willingness to overlook her past.
Despite Paul’s initial objections, and Joe’s protests, Dita invites herself along–let the nonsense begin.
Predictably, during the dry ordeal, Joe and Dita become attracted to each other, which is meant to raise tensions, but all it does is to highlights the lack of chemistry between Wayne and Loren; you neither wish to see her bond with Brazzi nor with Wayne.
Just as they run out of water, the duo stumble upon the ancient city, which has a well. When hey find the human skeletons of a woman and two men, it becomes evident that Paul’s father had found his woman in the arms of his guide, and killed them before shooting himself.
As there is also no treasure to be found, Paul’s faith in his father’s myth is shattered and he becomes a desperate drunk.
But then they suddenly find the treasure after Joe deciphers the clues left by Paul’s father in his bible.
All along, Paul makes attempts to seduce Dita, but she rejects him and he gets into a fight with Joe, who protects her.
Inexplicably, Joe and Dita show lack of concern for the treasure–Paul manages to sneak away during the night, taking the animals, supplies and treasure with him and leaving his companions to die.
Joe and Dita pursue him on foot and eventually catch up with Paul, who is unconscious from dehydration.
While Joe and Dita dig for water, Paul suddently regains consciousness, buries the treasure and attacks Joe with a knife, motivating Dita to kill him.
In the end, Joe and Dita are saved, when, out of the blue, they spot a caravan and signal for rescue.
Wayne and Hathaway had worked together six times, beginning with The Shepherd of the Hills (1941) and ending with Wayne’s Oscar-winning role in True Grit (1969).
Co-author Robert Presnell, nearing the end of his career, was one of Hollywood’s most successful screenwriters, but none of his talent is evident in Legend of the Lost. Equally perplexing is the writing contributions of a pro like Ben Hecht, who had dome so many good scripts.
Hathaway later said that two things were wrong with the film: the script and the casting of Brazzi–“he can’t play evil… the more I worked with him the worse he got.” I can add to hs list the fact that there are no secondary characters in the thinly constructed text.
Wayne liked the location work in Rome and Libya, where the Roman remains of Leptis Magna were used extensively as locations for the ancient city.
In the script, Wayne’s character refers to Timgad, a sardonic reference to Paul’s father’s delusions. The lost city of Timgad was actually the Leptis Magna ruins, a Roman city dating back to the 7th century B.C. near Tripoli, in northwest Libya, while “Timbuktu” was actually in Zliten, Libya.
Despite mixed to negative reviews, Legend of the Lost was moderately popular at the box office and did not damage the reputation and future careers of any of the three stars.
Cast
John Wayne as Joe January
Sophia Loren as Dita
Rossano Brazzi as Paul Bonnard
Kurt Kasznar as Prefect Dukas
Sonia Moser as Girl
Angela Portaluri as Girl
Ibrahim El Hadish as Galli Galli
Credits:
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Screenplay by Ben Hecht, Robert Presnell
Produced by Hathaway, John Wayne
Cinematography Jack Cardiff
Edited by Bert Bates
Music by A.F. Lavagnino
Production: Batjac Productions; Dear Film Productions
Distributed by United Artists
Release date: Dec 17, 1957
Running time: 109 minutes
Budget: $1,500,000
Box office $2,200,000 (domestic rentals)
