One of the most misguided musical movies ever created, Lost Horizon has to be seen -- or at least glimpsed -- to be believed. The original Frank Capra-directed version is such a classic that a remake is almost bound to fall short, but producer Ross Hunter's version is nothing short of a debacle. The biggest and most important of its numerous problems are that no one seems to really have faith in the original fantasy-tinged story and that there is no overriding point of view to the entire proceedings. Indeed, Charles Jarrott seems to have phoned in his direction from an entirely different set. The film wreaks of the 1970s, but this seems to be merely because it was shot in 1973, not because Jarrott intended it to have that look and feel (or intended for that look and feel to be used to make a comment). Larry Kramer's screenplay is tedious and unimaginative, and while some of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David songs are hummable, the music has negligible dramatic weight, and the lyrics often sound as if they were intended to musicalize a transactional analysis handbook. The cast is left totally at sea, and everyone involved manages to embarrass themself -- none more so than Bobby Van, who as the only musical performer among them should have done better. Alarmingly, the voices are very poor -- in spite of the fact that Peter Finch and Liv Ullmann (who are assigned most of the songs) and Olivia Hussey are dubbed! The sets are tacky, and the less said about the choreography, the better. A couple of the tunes and a few affecting moments here and there keep Horizon from being a total disaster, but anyone expecting to experience Shangri-La from this film is in for a major disappointment.