LEGEND OF THE LOST

US, 1957, 107 minutes, Colour.
John Wayne, Sophia Loren, Rossano Brazzi.
Directed by Henry Hathaway.

Legend of the Lost has excellent credits but is only an average film. Directed by Henry Hathaway (who directed John Wayne in several films including North to Alaska, The Sons of Katie Elder and his Oscar-winning True Grit), the film is beautifully photographed in Technirama by veteran Jack Cardiff. The screen play is by Robert Presnell Jnr. and by Ben Hecht - the famous writer who in vests the screenplay with religious overtones. John Wayne has played his part (with the unlikely name of Joe January) many times and in the West. This one of Sophia Loren's first Hollywood films. Rossano Brazzi is good as the confused and pompous double-standard Paul Bonnard. While the film is set in the Sahara, it could just as easily have been set in the Arizona desert.

1. Entertaining action adventure? The Sahara desert with the overtones of Africa and Muslims? Comparisons with the western, the Arizona desert and Indians?

2. Technirama, colour photography, the use of the African towns, the desert, the ruins? Atmosphere? The special effects? Musical score?

3. The action adventure - the searcher with his sophisticated background and his mixed motivation? The hero who is good-natured, tough, drinks, falls in love with the heroine and leads all to safety? The exotic heroine? The stereotypes and the way they were presented?

4. The basic familiar plot: the search for hidden treasure? The adventurer who saves the group? The heroine who finds herself on the trek? The searcher and the secrets that he reveals - and his tragic death?

5. John Wayne as Joe January - in jail, knowledge of the desert, contract for taking Paul Bonnard into the desert, the clashes with Dita? The conditions of the expedition? The sand. the donkeys, the trek across the desert, Bonnard's plans and his knowledge of the desert? The reaction to Dita - and eventually falling in love with her? The discovery of the ruined city? Suspicions of the Arab nomads? His reaction to Bonnard's crisis? Walking through the desert with Dita? The finale and happy ending?

6. Dita as heroine - Sophia Loren at the beginning of her Hollywood career? Stealing in the marketplace? Her listening to Paul Bonnard and his affirmation of her and the religious themes? Her clashes with Joe? Her wanting to come on the expedition, her disguise? Sharing the experiences? Bonnard's passion for her - and his lofty statements of motive? Her reaction to the finding of the treasure? Her being abandoned by Bonnard? Her shooting him? The happy ending with Joe?

7. The complexity of the character of Paul Bonnard, the aristocrat, wealth? His father and the expedition, his death? The quest for buried treasure? His lecturing Dita? His moral and religious ideals? Comparisons with Joe? The gradual manifestation of his passionate nature and his being blind to his own motives? His relentlessness in pushing on? The discovery of the treasure? His various disappointments? The discovery of the truth about his father? The discovery of the corpses? The infidelity of the woman? disillusioning effect on Paul?

8. His father being a failure - and the repetition of the legend with Joe and Dita replaying the guard and woman in the father's expedition? Bonnard's wandering off, the clash and Dita's killing him? Giving plausibility to the previous episode - Bonnard as the image of his father? The background of Africa, especially the venal prefect and his taking of bribes? The Arabs in the desert? Buried treasure - Roman cities, legendary cities? The reworking of the romantic triangle - the predictable outcome of the interaction? The moral and religious themes? Greed, lust, respectability?