Lost Horizon (1937)

Lost Horizon
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Robert Riskin based on the novel by James Hilton
1937/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing

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[first lines]Book Pages: In these days of wars and rumors of wars – haven’t you ever dreamed of a place where there was peace and security, where living was not a struggle but a lasting delight? [/box]

I think it is very hard to make a compelling movie about big ideas.  Capra tried and failed with this one in my opinion.

Diplomat Robert Conway (Ronald Coleman), who is looking forward to being named as the next British Foreign Secretary, is working to evacuate expatriates from China during a local revolution. He and a few others manage to get out on the last plane but it starts flying west instead of east and crashes in the Himalayas.  There, the group is rescued and taken to a community called Shangri La in the beautiful Blue Valley where all is moderation and peace and there is no illness or death.  The founders of the lamasery at Shangri La are devoted to collecting art and literature so it will be saved when mankind destroys itself. This is right up Robert’s alley but the other passengers, particularly Robert’s volatile brother George (John Howard), smell a plot. With Sam Jaffe as the High Llama, H.B. Warner as a high official; Thomas Mitchell as a passenger on the lam; Edward Everett Horton as a paleontologist passenger; and Jane Wyatt as the woman who has dreamed of Robert from her haven in Shangri La.

This film was apparently over three hours long when it premiered (and bombed).  Capra then cut it to 135 minutes.  Over the years it was further cut until the commonly viewed version was 108 minutes.  I watched the AFI/UCLA restored version that reinstates all 135 minutes of the original release print (some with sound but no footage).  This was a noble work but, by reinstating some of the speechifying, accentuates the basic problems with the picture.  I just didn’t care about any of the characters.  All of them seemed to stand for something or other rather than being real people.  The cinematography and music are nice, though, and the action sequences are pretty good.

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