Grade: D+
Synopsis: In Timbuktu, an American (John Wayne) reluctantly guides a pious explorer (Rossano Brazzi) and a prostitute (Sophia Loren) into the Sahara desert in search of a lost city.
Legend of the Lost has some great location photography and a standard, charismatic performance from John Wayne. That’s about it.
The script by Ben Hecht and Robert Presnell Jr. is riddled with clichés, and never seems to find its footing. What starts as an adventure film morphs into a drama, which, in turn, morphs into a would-be horror film, before finally settling on an ending that has little relation to the 109 minutes that preceded it. It tries to give both Sophia Loren and Rossano Brazzi’s character’s big showy arcs while still finding plenty of screen time for Wayne, but, in the end, only succeeds in feeling disjointed and frustrating.
Both Loren and Brazzi overact horribly. While Brazzi at least doesn’t falter until the film’s third act, Loren is over-the-top from scene one. Fortunately, The Duke’s there to carry the film. In many ways, Wayne’s an anachronism amongst his European costars, refusing to over emote or veer from his iconic swagger, but it’s a good thing, because he makes the movie watchable.
What Legend of the Lost really needed was a stronger director. Henry Hathaway does a competent job, but, much like the not quite as disastrous Circus World (1964), Hathaway’s just not forceful enough to will the picture into a coherent story the way John Ford or Howard Hawks could, and it shows.
