Legend of the Lost is a 1957 Italian-American adventure film produced and directed by Henry Hathaway, shot in Technirama and Technicolor by Jack Cardiff, and starring John Wayne, Sophia Loren, and Rossano Brazzi.

In Timbuktu, experienced guide Joe January (John Wayne) reluctantly joins a Saharan treasure hunting expedition led by Paul Bonnard (Rossano Brazzi), a man obsessed with confirming his dead father's claim to have found a lost city.

Dita (Sophia Loren), a woman of dubious reputation, becomes infatuated with Paul and his willingness to overlook her past.

Joe and Dita wake up to find that Paul had sneaked away during the night, taking all the animals, supplies and treasure with him and leaving his companions to die.

Co-author Robert Presnell, nearing the end of his career at this time, was one of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters.

Hathaway said the main things wrong with the film were the script and the casting of Brazzi ("he can't play evil... the more I worked with him the worse he got.

Headquarters for the film were located in Ghadames, where, according to the publicity material, citizens of the local villages were employed on set, as well as some native Tuaregs, an ancient desert tribe.