Lost Horizon

The film has a great cast: Ronald Colman (what a voice!), lovely Jane Wyatt, Thomas Mitchell, H.B. Warner, Edward Everett Horton, Sam Jaffe and the almost forgotten (but very good) Isabel Jewell - she also appeared with Colman in "A Tale of Two Cities."

The set design has to be seen to be truly appreciated. Shangri-La is a prime example of Art Deco at it's most beautiful.

The film, as it exists today, is a bit like Frankenstein's monster, stitched together from a wide variety of sources, some of them in better condition than others. The story of the quarter-century restoration of the film is a fascinating example of the dedication to see a project through to it's completion.

The only complaint I have about the film, and it's a minor one, is about the number of expository sequences in the film. It seems that one character or another is always talking about what has gone on or what is going on. H.B. Warner's character, in particular, seems to exist for the most part to explain the backstory of Shangri-La. But that's, as I said, a minor complaint. This is a superb motion picture.


Painstaking Restoration of a Rarely Seen Classic Reflects True Vision   August 1, 2005
Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful

One of my favorite books growing up was James Hilton's classic 1933 book, "Lost Horizon", and I believe it motivated a great deal of my current wanderlust. Even though I have had the misfortune of seeing the disastrous 1973 musical remake when I was young, the original 1937 film adaptation has been a film I have wanted to see for years, but for whatever reason, it was next to impossible to uncover. Apparently, bastardized versions have shown up on TV through the years. Now we are fortunate to have this 1999 restoration spearheaded by UCLA film archivist Robert Gitt to match as closely as possible to Frank Capra's original 132-minute running time.

Similar to what was done with George Cukor's "A Star Is Born", "Lost Horizon" is presented with its complete soundtrack, but missing footage had to be found through other sources, even 16-mm prints recorded from TV broadcasts, and in a few scenes, production stills were sadly the only option to fill in the gaps. Consequently, there is a variable quality to the print, but when one thinks that much of this footage could have been completely lost, the visual lapses are more than forgivable. Now that I have seen Capra's vision of the book, I can now understand why it's a cinematic classic though I have to concede not as timeless as one would hope.

The fanciful plot centers on Robert Conway, a top-level English diplomat about to become the Foreign Secretary, who helps refugees and assorted others from war-ravaged China. A motley crew of passengers led by Conway boards a plane that is skyjacked toward the Himalayas where it crash lands in a desolate spot of Tibet. They are eventually met by a sect of locals who takes them to a paradise called Shangri-La. The focus of the story then becomes how each of the plane survivors responds to this utopian existence. With his instantly recognizable mellifluous tone, Ronald Colman is perfectly cast as Conway, the only one who embraces this seemingly perfect haven from the outset. He captures the natural curiosity and open romanticism of his character with his trademark erudite manner.

The rest of the cast is a gallery of stock characters fleshed out by the variable quality of the performances. H.B. Warner plays Chang with the requisite serenity of his vague, mysterious character; and Jane Wyatt - two decades before playing the perfect suburban wife and mother in "Father Knows Best" - is surprisingly saucy as Sondra, the young schoolteacher who has Conway brought to Shangri-La. She even has a brief nude swimming scene. John Howard unfortunately overplays the thankless role of Conway's obstreperous brother George to the point where I groan every time he appears onscreen. A similar feeling comes over me when I see Edward Everett Horton's overly pixilated and fey turn as Lovett and Sam Jaffe's bug-eyed, ethereal High Lama. Isabel Jewell and Thomas Mitchell fare better as a dying prostitute and a fugitive swindler, respectively.

The set designs for the Shangri-La lamasery by Stephen Goosson are intriguing in that they look like a post-modern tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright's prairie architecture, though one could argue that the exteriors also resemble a fancy Miami Beach resort hotel. I also imagine that the isolationist philosophy espoused by the High Lama may have been at odds with pre-WWII patriotic fervor, though the more lingering problem is the racism apparent in the casting (e.g., non-Asians like Warner playing inscrutable Asians) and the portrayal of the Tibetan porters as gun-toting derelicts. However, for all its flaws, the movie has some really stunning camerawork by Joseph Walker, surprisingly masterful special effects (for a near-poverty row studio like Columbia), Dmitri Tiomkin's stirring musical score and a powerful sense of mysticism that gives the film a genuine soul. It is no accident that Capra, the most idealistic of the master filmmakers, helmed this movie because a more cynical mindset could have easily sabotaged the entire venture.

The DVD is a wonderful package. First, there is a fascinating photo montage documentary with narration provided by film historian Kendall Miller, which gives a true feeling of how Capra approached the production. Gitt and film critic Charles Champlin provide audio commentary on an alternate track of the film with Gitt very informative about the exhaustive restoration process and Champlin more in awe of the result. There is even an alternative ending included that Columbia chief Harry Cohn insisted on filming and using upon release, but it had thankfully been dropped two weeks later. This is a genuine treat for cinemaphiles, as there are few films that make such a compelling case for seeking out one's personal utopia.


They don't make them like this anymore!   October 15, 2000
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

I bought this DVD skeptically - never been a fan of thirties films, but have played this movie at least 5 times the last month. The screenplay is engaging and as relevant today as the day it was written. At first, the characters seem a little two dimensional, but as the story line plays out, Ronald Colman, Thomas Mitchell, and Sam Jaffe will capture your heart. The story is deep with an ending that has almost moved me to tears every time I see the film. It is more than a fantastic adventure, a romance, or a mere story of enchantment. The concept of a Shangri-la has spiritual and political overtones that seem more relevant to our generation than when it was first released. Gets you thinking about what is really important in life.

Then there is the restoration. That is a story unto itself, and it is covered in detail. There are approximately seven minutes of the DVD where the audio exists with no footage, so they use still photos and let you hear the movie as it was meant to be seen (after the initial Santa Barbara premiere but before the World War II cuts). After experiencing this DVD you'll certainly know why they went to the trouble. I can't wait to experience more of Frank Capra.