After derided preview screenings Columbia Pictures attempted to re-cut the film, but to no avail. Critic John Simon remarked that it "must have arrived in garbage rather than in film cans." "Lost Horizon" was such a box-office failure that the film gained the nickname "Lost Investment". Bette Midler alluded to it as "Lost Her-Reason" and famously quipped "I never miss a Liv Ullmann musical". Woody Allen quipped "If I could live my life over again I wouldn't change a thing...except for seeing the musical version of "Lost Horizon"".