"Lost Horizon" is considered one of the last of several box-office musical failures of the late 1960s and early 1970s as well as the last musical film to be given the roadshow release, which came in the wake of the success of "The Sound of Music". Attempts to update the idea of Shangri-La with its racial inequalities intact, coupled with old-fashioned songs, effectively sealed its fate according to "The New Yorker" film critic Pauline Kael. She noted that Shangri-La was depicted as: