CABARET is to blame for the death of the musical genre, not this one

Doesnt look like this will ever be released on DVD :(

Hated Cabaret...

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"I am a donut" (Eddie Izzard as JFK in Berlin)

I suspect you are probably right.. although supersaturation had a lot to do with the set-up. Cabaret could have been merely the first (to some) positive alternative to the Rogers and Hammerstein pics we could never, seemingly, get away from.. I mean, wasn't that the point of the Monty Python musical segues?

To Be is not to be: it is to exist with confidence in sublimation.

This message thread reeks of jealousy. If you like the musical version of "Lost Horizon", then go ahead and watch it. But don't blame "Cabaret" for the dismal failure of LH, or movie musicals, in general. The big differene between these two films is that the talent benind "Cabaret" included real singers like Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey, and was directed by Bob Fosse, a real Broadway and film director. LH featured songs performed by non-singers and dancing by non-dancers. The director, Charles Jarrott, was a competent British director who mimicked the Capra version at the start - and not badly, either. But when the characters reached Shangri-La and began singing, the film turned into Paradise Lost. Jarrott, not a director of musicals, was out of his element once the tunes began. Perhaps the soundtrack by Bacharach and the late Mr. David would have sounded better if the producer, Ross Hunter, had hired singers instead of an all-star roster better suited for a 70s disaster movie (Hunter, himself, created the original 70s disaster-movie cycle with "Airport".) Unfortunately for the performers, they didn't realize that they aere appearing in the first disaster musical. Now the problem with the disaster musical is, actors can't just ham it up until the first explosion goes off or the first building topples, which makes the viewing audience forget the corny dialogue. No, it's all about the on-screen talent. No fires, no floods. They, alone, have to sing and dance, in addition to mouthing trite dialogue. And it is at times like these that audiences wish that one of the on-screen characters would actually set the curtains on fire that appear in the background, in order to distract the horrified viewers from the singing and dancing cows they see in the foreground.
So, again, if you like this howling dog of a musical, while most movie fans prefer the Oscar-winning "Cabaret",at least you'll understand why LH is where it is on the movie musical food chain.

PS It really was big-budget flops (with music} such as LH and "Mame" that buried the movie musical, along with "Hello Dolly", "Star" and "Darling Lili", et al. These films still have their fans today, but very few of those fans showed up in the theatres when these puppies were unleashed.

I don't know what it is about the IMDB forum, but it certainly invites more uniformed, childish, and extremely stupid opinions than appear anywhere on the internet.

Blaming "Cabaret" for the failure of this film and the "death" of the movie musical, is the height of stupidity.

First, the film, (Cabaret) was a smash hit. Joey Grey won an Oscar, the world discovered Bob Fosse who brought a new language of dance to the screen, and a new appreciation for the play. This was no easy feat.

Second, you have to remember that TRADITIONALLY, that is to say, going back to the beginning of sound films, the filming of "Stage Musicals," is inherently a risky one. Very few succeed. Regarding the "golden era" of Hollywood movie musicals, the 1940's -- it's a joke -- they produced far more "bombs" then blockbusters. It is VERY difficult to transfer from one medium to another.

Bear this in mind, when you judge film musicals.

Third, the sixties and early seventies produced a paucity of musicals to choose from. In other words, stage musicals tended to "suck" and those produced for film could be counted on the fingers of one hand. So what was there to judge?

Fourth, it became increasingly and absurdly expensive to produce movie musicals. Unions, fees, rights, and TALENT, etc, made them, for the most part, financially very risky, so fewer and fewer were made. Look at "Horizon," a huge risk and a huge loss for the studio (in so many ways). That the period after "My Fair Lady" is called the death of the movie musical is more a result of the expense of creating them than anything else.

That musicals tended to fail was more a result of them being really awful. NOT that tastes had changed so much, or that it became anathema for a character to burst into song. What nonsense. Revivals of such shows as, "Guys and Dolls," or, "42nd Street" show that people LOVE the musical genre. Then you have things that come out of nowhere, like "Thoroughly Modern Millie," or, "Chicago," that again, continue in the tradition of the classic musical theater. Please.

Lost Horizon was/is JUNK pure and simple. Great musicals succeed when they are well done, have great songs/books appropriately written for the material. They always have, they always will.

LEARN SOMETHING BEFORE YOU VOMIT YOUR OPINIONS ON THE INTERNET.