Lost Horizon (film)

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Lost Horizon
Movie theatre poster for Lost Horizon
Directed by	Frank Capra
Produced by	Frank Capra
Written by	James Hilton (novel) Robert Riskin
Starring	Ronald Colman Jane Wyatt John Howard
Music by	Dimitri Tiomkin
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	March 2, 1937 (USA premiere)
Running time	132 min. (original version)
Language	English
IMDb profile

Lost Horizon is a 1937 film directed by Frank Capra starring Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt and Sam Jaffe. It tells the story of a group of travelers who find a utopian society in the Himalaya mountains. The film is based upon the James Hilton novel of the same name and was adapted by Sidney Buchman (uncredited) and Robert Riskin. The Streamline Moderne sets were designed by Stephen Goosson.

Artistically, Lost Horizon evokes many of the themes associated with Capra as an auteur but is somewhat darker and at times, cynical, as with much of his early work.

It was remade as a musical in 1973; however, it was a notorious critical and commercial failure.

1 Synopsis
2 Lost Scenes
3 Academy Awards
4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Fleeing unrest in China, a small group of airplane passengers is hijacked by the pilot. The plane eventually runs out of fuel and crashes deep in the Himalayas, killing the abductor. The group is rescued by Chang (H.B. Warner) and taken to Shangri-la, an idyllic valley sheltered from the cold. The contented inhabitants are led by the mysterious High Lama (Jaffe).

Initially anxious to return to "civilization", most of the newcomers grow to love the place, including academic Alexander Lovett (Edward Everett Horton), swindler Henry Barnard (Thomas Mitchell), and terminally ill Gloria Stone (Isabel Jewell), who miraculously seems to be recovering. High-ranking British diplomat Robert Conway (Colman) is also enchanted, particularly when he meets Sondra (Wyatt), who has grown up in Shangri-la. However, Conway's younger brother George (John Howard) and Maria (Margo), another beautiful woman they find there, are determined to leave.

Conway eventually learns that his arrival was no accident. He was brought there by the High Lama to take his place. The founder of Shangri-la claims to be hundreds of years old, preserved, like the other residents, by the magical properties of the paradise he has created, but is finally dying and needs someone wise and knowledgeable in the ways of the modern world to keep it safe.

George refuses to believe the Lama's fantastic story and is backed up by Maria. Torn between love and loyalty, Conway reluctantly gives in to his brother and they leave, taking Maria with them. After several days of gruelling travel, she becomes exhausted and falls face down in the snow. When they turn her over, they discover that she has died...of extreme old age. Her departure from Shangri-la had restored Maria to her true age. Horrified, George loses his sanity and jumps to his death.

Conway continues on and eventually meets up with a search party sent to find him, though the ordeal has caused him to lose his memory of Shangri-la. On the voyage back to England, he remembers everything; he tells his story and then jumps ship. The searchers track him back to the Himalayas, but are unable to follow him any further. In the final scene, Conway returns to Shangri-la, to the waiting Sondra.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Lost Scenes

No complete original print of this movie is known to have survived, as several reels of the original nitrate negative deteriorated in the late 1960s. Several years after its initial release, an "edited" version was presented, which aimed to downplay the supposedly Communist themes associated with utopia, as well as to limit the sympathy shown towards the Chinese, whose relationship with the American government grew strained in the years following World War II. A total of twenty-two minutes was cut.

A combination of the collapse of the production code and an interest in restoring old films resulted in an attempt in the 1970's to find an original print of the film. As is often the case, this meant examining archives of early Hollywood films overseas, where reels were frequently neglected. The original soundtrack was recovered intact, but six minutes, spread out over several scenes, remain either compromised or lost. Subsequent releases of Lost Horizon on both video and DVD present a restored version that is close as possible to the original theatrical release. A combination of deteriorated footage, stills, and publicity photos is substituted for the missing scenes. Some viewers find these sequences rather jarring and confusing, but it is generally agreed that many of these scenes are crucial to the film's continuity, both for enjoyment and as a historical archive. The introduction to the restored version proclaims "[their] search for the missing footage goes on".