Journey To The Lost City

JOURNEY TO THE LOST CITY still has me trying to figure out where the lost city was and whether or not anyone in the film really finds it.This film, originally released by American International and shown in movie theatres in the late 1950s, is a severely truncated version of Fritz Lang's original lengthy opus. I remember seeing this short version in my father's small-town movie theatre on a double bill with another AIP programmer. Clearly, this was not another entry in the typical double-feature made-for-drive-in theatres for the horny teens who barely watched the screen anyway, like THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN and THE CAT WOMAN or BLOOD OF DRACULA and HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER. This was clearly an acquired product, unlike others produced on a shoe-string budget. Nor, however, was it particularly satisfying. On DVD, unfortunately, taken from a faded 16 millimeter print, it is still unsatisfying.One can argue for the full version made in the German language by the great master of such film noir greats as THE BIG HEAT and such weird westerns as RANCHO NOTORIOUS, but his long version, available on two disks, seems to be much ado about very little. Despite its length, the original is not an epic. It is a stretched-out effort with very little substance behind it -- sort of a short story made long. JOURNEY TO THE LOST CITY is, on the other hand, too short. Too much was removed from Lang's original, so perhaps something in between these two versions would be more desirable. At least the original was rendered in clear crisp Technicolor images and, on DVD, looks great. It also includes both of Debra Paget's dance numbers, one of which is performed in a costume that is unbelievably erotic. This short version omits the racier of her two dances, and this is unfortunate. Including it in this film might have given the work a needed boast to rescue it from the turgid footage that remains.Paul Hubschimdt makes a stalwart hero, able to defeat a tiger in his white dinner jacket. Most American viewers may remember him as the villain in the Michael Caine - Harry Palmer film FUNERAL IN BERLIN, and he is well-cast here as the love interest of the incredibly beautiful Ms. Paget, one of the more stunning beauties to ever appear in American or foreign films. Both stars carry this film because the others, even the second male lead who lusts for her delectable torso, are given relatively little to do.I ordered this film from Amazon because I was curious to revisit the version that I had seen as a boy. Amazon, to its credit, did admit that this film might be unacceptable to some viewers because of its 16mm origin, so I have no one to blame for the washed-out colors that hamper this DVD product. Unfortunately, such films as ROME AGAINST ROME, originally released in theatres as WAR OF THE ZOMBIES, suffer, as well, from their humble origins that have not maintained their integrity over the years.Perhaps a better version of this severely edited version of Lang's over-long original will eventually become available. Until then, look for Lang's original. At least it has Paget's dance routine performed in her incredibly racy costume, if one can call the strategically placed stick-on patches a costume.

Hi ,,If you are a fan of Debra Pagets as I am and have not seen the full length version you would probably been of been satisfied with this version but unfortunately in shortening it they have cut out some of the best parts ,unbelievably one of these parts being her snake dance which is without doubt the best known part of the film ,they would of done better by leaving it in and making the film that few minutes longer ,on the other hand the dubbing on this was in my opinion superior to that on other versions ,still a very watchable film ,,,,,Les Boden

If you like Debra Paget you will like this movie. She also played in the Ten Commandaments. I didn't know she wasa dancer. In this movie she does a great dance performance.

This is a great movie way before my time but the history in this film is what grab me some of the places that use t shoot in this film are real and I would like to visit these places some day, but other then that it is a great adventure.

NOT TOO HAPPY WITH THIS. APPEARENTLY THIS IS AN ORIGANAL CUT OF THE FILM. NOT THE REMASTERED VERSION I WAS HOPING FOR. BEING SOMEWHAT VIDEO PRODUCTION IGNORANT, MAYBE THIS WAS DONE IN A FORMAT NOT QUITE PERFECTED YET AS THE INDIAN TOMB (PART 2) WAS AT THE TIME. ITS NICE TO HAVE, MAKING THIS 2-PART EPIC IN MY VID. LIBRARY, SO ITS NOT ALL BAD.

Sinister Cinema has an interesting collection of movies, "Journey to the Lost City" is one of them. The prices for them are not justified either from the Sinister Cinema website or through Amazon. I have now collected three DVD's that are provided by Sinister Cinema. All three have poor image quality. Regarding contrast, the intermediate shades of light and dark that help give detail are lost. On sharpness, where there should be distinct clear lines the image is a bit blurred. Though two of my Sinister Cinema movies such as this one being reviewed, are described as being filmed in Technicolor they are little better than Black & White, though you can tell from time to time that they were originally filmed in color. It is NOT likely that I will get any more DVD's from Sinister Cinema.

If you like adventures to unusual places, you'll like this movie.

I bought this specifically for the snake charming scene, which is a classic Debra Paget dance. I'd seen it on line and wanted to see the whole movie. Not only is the scene cut out of this Fritz Lang classic, but the sound and video quality are quite poor. The worst thing is, having seen the dance scene on line, I recognized the robe over her dance costume from a 3 second snip preceded be a reference as to why the dance scene is important to the plot, makes the story confusing.Honestly, even if this was restored and digitally remastered with the missing scene, this movie has a lot of "why is in here?" and "why would they even bother doing that?" moments, and was never going to get more than 3.5 or 4 starts from me.

The video quality was poor as one would expect from an unrestored film from 1960. I had purchased this DVD title to see Debra Paget do her famous snake dance. It was in the original movie but not on this DVD. Please be warned, this is an EDITED VERSION of Journey To The Lost City. That means that any and all "RACY" scenes have been CUT OUT. What a bunch of PRUDES! I feel that I was ripped-off. If you want to see Debra do the snake dance, you would have to find an unedited version (if it exists). I would recommend that you save your money and not purchase this edited version of Journey To The Lost City.