Film Review: Lost Horizon (1937)

While there were many things 1930s Hollywood was good at, few matched its ability to provide escapist entertainment. And that was exactly what masses, impoverished and exhausted by Great Depression and increasingly anxious over approaching world war, wanted on the big screen. Sometimes Hollywood provided such escape from the world not only by creating their own but also allowing audience to relive such escape through adventures of the protagonists. Best known of such films is Lost Horizon, 1937 romantic adventure drama directed by Frank Capra which, despite some flaws, represents one of the most extraordinary films of Classic Hollywood era.

The film is based on 1933 novel by British author James Hilton. Protagonist, played by Ronald Colman, is British soldier, scholar, explorer and diplomat Robert Conway. The plot begins in March 1935 in Chinese city of Baskul where civil war has erupted. Conway is sent there by the British government in order to lead evacuation of Western citizens. He manages to board the last the plane out together with his hotheaded younger brother George (played by John Howard), palaeontologist Lovett (played by Edward Everett Horton), escaped con man Barnard (played by Thomas Mitchell) and Gloria (played by Isabell Jewell), mortally ill woman with troubled past. During the Conway and the passengers note that the plane is flying westwards instead eastwards towards Shanghai. It turns out that the plane was hijacked over by native pilot who has his own ideas where they should go. They crash land somewhere in Himalayan mountains during which pilot dies. They are, however, rescued by group of natives led by Chinese monk Chang (played by H. B. Warner) who, much to their surprise, speaks English. He brings them to Shangri-La, idyllic valley surrounded by mountains and almost inaccessible from the rest of the world. There they find utopian community led by wise High Lama (played by Sam Jaffe) where there isn’t any violence, greed and strife and whose inhabitants enjoy extraordinary long lives. Conway is so enthusiastic with the world so different from his own, especially after meeting Sondra (played by Jane Wyatt), beautiful woman who was adopted into Shangri-La after death of her explorer parents. The rest of his party also gradually begins to like their new home, but not George who becomes increasingly restless and decides to help beautiful girl Maria (played by Margo Albert) escape.

Lost Horizon was one of the most ambitious Hollywood projects of its time, but also affected by technical limitations of its era. Frank Capra, who was one of the most successful and respected directors of his time, best known for populist comedies like It Happened One Night, worked on it for two and half years and managed to get record budget for Columbia Pictures and its president Harry Cohn. He originally wanted to make the film in colour but had to abandon the idea because even with such large budgets, he get stock footage of Himalayas and mountain avalanches, necessary for the film, only in black-and-white. Despite those limitations, Lost Horizon has quite a few impressive visuals, mostly due to Shangri-La set designed in style that matched exoticism of Orient with modernity of Art Deco. Music was written by Dimtri Tiomkin, composer who would later become Capra’s main collaborator, although in later years best known for his western scores.

Capra also had very good cast at his disposal. Ronald Colman, actor who became star by playing suave English gentlemen, delivers one of the best performances of his career. Robert Conway is larger-than-life character who is both hero and world-weary cynic, but whose infatuation with Shangri-La is less motivated by sense of adventure of beautiful Sondra but by honest curiosity and newly found sense of purpose in increasingly violent and chaotic world. Jane Wyatt, one of the most beautiful actresses of her time (who would later star as Margaret Anderson in popular TV sitcom Father Knows Best and play Spock’s mother Amanda Grayson in original Star Trek) has good chemistry with him and appears very confident on screen, even censorship-defying skinny-dipping scene (although Capra ultimately used body double and various camera tricks during its shooting). Veteran characters actors Edward Everett Horton and Thomas Mitchell effectively serve as comic reliefs. The most impressive is, however, Sam Jaffee as elderly Lama, despite his appearance being short. He delivers short but important speech explaining need for Shangri-La to preserved not only for the its inhabitants, but for the rest of humanity that might share its carefully preserved science and arts once the apocalyptic war is over. Those words were powerful in late 1930s, just as might be powerful now.

Lost Horizon is very good film, but hardly perfect. Main issue is somewhat abrupt and ambiguous ending that leaves impression of film being unfinished. This can be result of chaotic production and Capra’s battles with Cohn which ultimately affected the final version of the film. Lost Horizon was greeted well by critics and was quite popular at the box office, but Columbia nevertheless needs years to make it profitable. In the meantime, Cohn’s desire to make it shorter for more daily showings in theatres and later censorship due to WW2 and Cold War politics led to the film being subjected to massive cuts. By 1952 out of 132 minutes of original version only 92 minutes remained. Restoration started only in 1967 and after many decades it led to the latest version having complete audio recording, but without six minutes of actual film (being replaced with promotional photos). In 1973 Lost Horizon was remade as musical, which is considered one of the worst films of its time. But that fiasco did little for the reputation of Capra’s work, reflected in “Shangri-La” entering many vocabularies, influencing popular culture (including Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) and many real life adventures travelling all over Asia in search of its real life counterpart.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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