LOST HORIZON 1973 - The Complete Version - Page 2

If good old Sony is plugging the film as resotred and uncut, it should have the original Intermission and Intermission music.
So far thisrelease is getting my BS award for this year.
Greg, when the Egyptian had the screening, was it stereo.
Also, when I did stereo remixing for columbia films, they officially owned those stereo remixes.

My Warner Archive copy was delayed a week and arrived today via Next Day Air. Despite the delay, the sound remains monaural. The box makes no mention of the film being "uncut" or in 5.1 stereo. It's merely a "fully restored extended version" in Dolby Digital, running 149 minutes.

The restored footage blends perfectly. There is no intermission.

And that Fertility Dance is even sillier than everyone said it was. What little hope that this version of the Hilton story could be taken seriously by this point in the film is destroyed by the campy choreography of the scantily clad hunks twirling around in circles. Watching it, I imagine every heterosexual male that was dragged to this by their wives and girlfriends in 1973 must have made a mad dash for the exit in hopes that "Deliverance" was playing in the auditorium next door. And while I'm glad it's been restored to its premiere length, I only wish they had included the general release cut as an alternate option, because there's no way to enjoy this film in the way the Ross Hunter envisioned with this sequence intact. (Count how many times Mr. Hunter says he's proud of the film in the featurette.)

But it is what it is. And it's out on DVD. If it ever makes it to BluRay, they can try to get it right.

 

Well this is disappointing. 

 

What Rob_Ray said. Maybe Twilight Time will pick it up for Blu. I can't believe anyone wants to hear these songs with greater clarity and fullness...

regarding the sony made on demand of "lost horizon", yes it's disappointing that it's not in stereo, but i think were pretty lucky to even see any kind of release for this film on dvd, considering it was only given a laserdisc release prior to this. how wonderful for us that they even bothered to restore any of these cut scenes at all. i went to the last screening of it at the egyptian theatre and it was the general release version in mono, the print looked great and the audience really seemed to enjoy it. this dvd release looks incredible, even the restored scenes look great, highly recommended to anyone that has waited for an official dvd release even if it is made on demand. by the way there were still a few films that had official intermissions after 1973 that i had attended, including "mame", "funny lady", "that's entertainment part 2", "king kong 1976" and "reds".

There is yet another piece missing from this restoration- a reprise of living Together thats introed by Geoge kennedy and sally Kellerman and then sung by the chorus. this is not thereand it certainly was in full run

No matter what the box says, the specs on the site claim remixed 5.1 track and restored uncut version. Neither is true.

REDS is the only movie I saw first run that had an intermission (did GANDHI?). Don't remember one with KONG (76), which was a half-hour shorter than, say, THE TOWERING INFERNO, which was intermissionless as I recall (along with the three-hour DEER HUNTER, but I saw that well into its run).

Was it the studio that requested an intermission? The exhibitor? The filmmaker? (Not trying to pull focus from LOST HORIZON, by the way, just curious.)

Kong had an intermission??

 

Gandhi -- good question, but now that you mention it, I think I remember it having an intermission at the Plitt Century Plaza in L.A.

 

ABC Mid South Theatres did an experiment with adding intermissions to it's regular run shows in an effort to pump up concession sales.  It might have worked except they always had the intermission at the end of the third reel and sometimes that was in the middle of a scene.  The Poseidon Adventure was the one I really remember for the intermission started during an argument and started back up finishing up the argument.  The experiment lasted about three months. 

 

I am all for intermissions if they are planned and executed correctly.  I did not see Lost Horizon in any Roadshow venue and do not recall an intemission when I did. 

 

Usually it was the the distributors that planned the intermissions, but it ended up if the theater operators wanted to execute them or not.  I recall when the re-release of Fiddler on the Roof happened in the late 70's that there was an intermission attached, but home office heads dictated that we would not have an intermission. 

 

 

Edited by ahollis - 10/13/11 at 9:34am

I received my copy yesterday and thought I would chime in with my thoughts:

While I hate that the stereo soundtrack is missing I am pleased to see the most complete version yet especially since, until now, the restored sequences were considered lost. I, too, had the laserdisc with the inferior workprint pieces reinstated.

When I saw the film first run in Houston I am 99.9% certain it had an intermission just after "If I Could Go Back/Where Knowledge Ends" by Peter Finch and Liv Ullman ("I never miss a Liv Ullman musical" - I never get tired of that quote!). I remember the intermission card had a drawing of the lamasery on it. The first run version had already been shorn of the "spectacular" fertility dance as well as the reprise of "Living Together" by George and Sally and chorus.

I remember being disappointed when I saw a wide release of it later and the songs and intermission were gone.

A blu-ray with 5.1 stereo would be spectacular.

On a side note, when I saw The Towering Inferno first run in Houston it most definitely had an intermission.

I saw Gandhi at General Cinema's Lakeside Cinema at it opening gala in New Orleans, LA.  I know it did not have intermission for my seat still hurts from sitting in those Heywood-Wakefield chairs that General Cinema used.  They were the most uncomfortable chairs in any theatre and I tried to stay away from any GCC that had those chairs. 
 

 

Thanks for the intermission anecdotes, guys. Now back to LOST HORIZON.

The sound is not mono. It's 5.1 SURROUND. Ya'll need a better sound system

The film never had an intermission. By 1973 Intermissions were considered old hat. They interrupt the flow of the film and take the viewer out of the story. Nobody likes Intermissions in anything shorter than a 3 hour film.

Found this interesting anecdote on Amazon:

"This film came out in 1973 and I saw it in its original full length version (about 3hours and 15 min.) Executives from Columbia Pictures were there, it was the premeire, and they were groaning and at the intermission fights broke out(verbal) and ushers passed among them and myself and everyone else with soundtrack albums. The executives left the theatre and scaled the albums across Columbus Circle in Boston and I and a few friends retrieved them and had quite a few for free. We returned to the film and I have always loved this crazy redition of Lost Horizon, the miscasting, the terrible sets, the odd ball music for the story, the dubbed Liv Ullmann, the dance routines of Olivia Hussey..all of it. You cannot find a musical like it, or a soundtrack like it. Columbia execs were unimaginative; they should have believed in this film. The next day after this premeire in Boston, New York etc. (simultaneous I suppose) the film was cut, the posters were taken down..there was a ton of material to buy..T Shirts, dolls, posters of all sizes, bath towels with the poster on them, records of the sd tk of course, and small pop up sets of the entire film. It was to be a massive hit..In two days time all of the paraphanalia was removed, and the posters said, Last Two Weeks, and in two weeks the whole thing disappeared. But many people came to see it..lines of people, and, when they heard it had been cut, they gave up, and in two weeks everyone said farewell to this film."

Perhaps you should take yours out of simulated surround mode.

Sorry Dude, but I like an intermission no matter how long or short a film is as long as it is planed and executed correctly so speak for yourself.  There were many films under 3 hours that had intermissions during the Roadshow days. 

 

Same here.  Planned and executed well, they give you the quick pee break or refreshment and leg-stretching break while making you greatly anticipate getting right back into the story.  (2001, anyone?)

 

(Actually, that's a question I've wanted to ask:  What, in your humble opinions, were the best planned/executed intermission breaks?)  (But let's save that for another thread since this one has business to attend to.)

 

GANDHI had an intermission, right after the Amritsar massacre sequence. So did REDS, the year before. The only other movies I can think of that had official intermissions since then are GETTYSBURG and GODS AND GENERALS.

SCHINDLER'S LIST had an official intermission when I saw it in Italy ("Intervallo"), but not in the United States.

Movies that are under 2 and a half hours DON'T NEED an intermission. It takes the viewer out of the story and doesn't provide the impact the film could deliver otherwise. Certainly at 149 minutes LOST HORIZON doesn't need it

I remember seeing "Reds" in a Westchester county multiplex in New York and when the intermission came no one knew what to do. A lot of people looked around condused and bored. intermissions ened about 10 years earlier and the majority of the audience had never been through one - esp in a multiplex! I don't think anyone was expected one. I know I wasn't and I had been to films with intermissions before

 

 

 

On the other hand - Roadshow intermissions were fun - but those were a totally different movie going experience. I remember the Warner RKO did a 10 week long Roadshow program in 1978 and "Camelot" has an intermission - (my very first) but that was a roadshow house and the rest rooms were renamed "Kings" and "Queens"

 

10 films is 10 weeks - Though "West Side Story" did not have an intermission, nor "Cabaret"

 

The Ziegfeld Theater in New York had intermissions for "Lawrence of Arabia" and "My Fair Lady" but the audience knew exactly what to do (of course it was a NYC audience)

 

"Titanic" should have had an intermission - it was a long film and I drank a large coke before it started so ...( well with all that water flowing) I had to use the rest room 2/3 into the film

 

 

The LOST HORIZON intermission should have been placed before the first song, giving the audience a chance to flee.

 

I saw A BRIDGE TOO FAR, BARRY LYNDON, THE DEER HUNTER, and REDS first-run and they all had intermissions. I also saw RAGTIME, TESS, and GANDHI first-run but I cannot remember whether they had intermissions.

 

The four-hour ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA and the director's cut of DAS BOOT had intermissions, but I saw those in art houses -- they weren't general release pictures.

That reminds me of the time I saw the reissue of DOCTOR ZHIVAGO in 1995. When the film started there was an overture and after a couple of minutes the younger members of the audience were wondering why the screen curtains hadn't been drawn back yet. They were turning their heads back toward the projection booth with puzzled looks on their faces.

 

 

Nope, it's 2 channel with both channels carrying the same signal.  Which is delivered by the center speaker only.

 

BTW, merging the LD stereo audio track with the DVD video track is not quite as simple as it may seem in this case, as the fertility dance sequence is not present on the LD, and at least one song is from a different takes between LD and DVD.

 

Vern

 

Mr. Caps you are the expert on Lost Horizon, 1776 and several excellent Pioneer Laserdiscs.  If you end up with a copy of this bastardized DVD-r of the film, could you enlighten us with what is different between the two releases?  There seems to be so many opinions out there.  Thank you. 
 

 

Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet definitely had an intermission. I believe this is the most recently made film that I saw at a theater which included an intermission.

 Well we know the Intermission is missing, but is the Overture include?

Indeed, HAMLET must have had an intermission, I just don't recall it (or if ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA had one when I saw it in Chicago). I know that RAGTIME didn't when I saw it at the local mall.

The nine-hour SHOAH had intermissions and a dinner break, but that was unusual.

I'm just happy to have this on DVD now after waiting for so long. Sure, it could be better but I'm thankful for what we have and it's a miracle that we have this at all.

Cheers!
Harry