When she’s onscreen you literally can’t take your eyes off her. Personally, I think she’s at her most beautiful in the early 1960s in El Cid, opposite Charlton Heston. La Loren looks wonderful of course, and if I’m correct I think this is her first major Hollywood film, after which she went on to star opposite the likes of Alan Ladd, Cary Grant and William Holden. Either way, I get the feeling the film is a bit of a Henry Hathaway misfire seeing as not too many people seem to champion it that much.
I think the film itself is a metaphor for the arid box-office years Duke enjoyed – or not as the case might be – in between The Searchers (1956) and Rio Bravo (1959). I can’t remember the last time I watched Legend of the Lost in which Miss Loren pouts and sways across the desert as prostitute Dita, in thrall to JW as Joe January – what a great name. The actresses are also not listed in order of preference either, although I have left my favourite until last. I’m going to open up the list to include some of the ladies who starred opposite Duke in his non-Westerns – but to be honest even JW’s non-Westerns are almost Westerns anyway. Martha Hyer – “The Sons of Katie Elder”.Laraine Day – “Tycoon “ / “The High and the Mighty”.Rita Hayworth – “Circus World” (aka “The Magnificent Showman”).Paulette Goddard – “Reap the Wild Wind” (1942).Jean Arthur – “A Lady Takes A Chance” (1943).Constance Towers – The Horse Soldiers (1959).Claudia Cardinale – Circus World (aka The Magnificent Showman).Lauren Bacall – Blood Alley / The Shootist.Susan Hayward – Reap the Wild Wind / The Fighting Seabees / The Conqueror.Joan O’Brien – The Alamo / The Comancheros.
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