Lost Horizon ***** (1937, Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, Edward Everett Horton, John Howard, Thomas Mitchell) – Classic Movie Review 2,210

Shangri-la seems to be the perfect escape, but is it the Utopia it appears? Frank Capra’s charming 1937 romantic adventure film Lost Horizon stars Ronald Colman.

Director Frank Capra’s 1937 romantic adventure classic film Lost Horizon – about an idyllic life in a Tibetan valley – can still charm and cast its ancient spell. Ronald Colman stars as Robert Conway, England’s ‘Man of the East’, a world-weary British soldier and diplomat.

Conway and a handful of plane passengers crash land in the Himalayas but are rescued by the people of the secluded, mysterious, Eden-like valley of Shangri-La, a Utopian community where there is no evil, rain, sickness, war or dying young. Protected by the mountains from the outside world, where World War Two is threatening, Shangri-la seems to be the perfect escape, but is it the Utopia it appears?

Capra’s delightful version of the 1933 James Hilton fantasy-adventure novel still casts a potent spell throughout and boasts an especially affecting climax.

The five splendid lead performances from Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, Edward Everett Horton, John Howard and Thomas Mitchell, Robert Riskin’s sterling screenplay, Joseph Walker’s eye-catching black and white cinematography, Dimitri Tiomkin’s striking music and Stephen Goosson’s impressive set designs are the main delights in this American classic that’s hopefully guaranteed to amaze and move lovers of old movies.

It was a costly movie at $4 million and a long, complicated project where designing the many elaborate sets took more than a year. It exceeded its budget by more than $776,000 and took five years to earn back its cost. This led to a financial crisis for the Columbia Pictures studio, damaging the partnership between Capra and studio head Harry Cohn, as well as the friendship between Capra and his screen-writer Riskin.

The first cut of the film was six hours long. Columbia Pictures considered releasing it in two parts, but decided it was impractical. Working with editors Gene Havlick and Gene Milford, Capra trimmed the running time to three and a half hours for what turned out to be a disastrous first preview in Santa Barbara on 22 November 1936, when many walked out, and those who remained laughed at serious sequences.

So Capra made extensive cuts and on 12 January 1937 reshot scenes involving the High Lama written by Sidney Buchman. But then Harry Cohn cancelled the intended 1 February opening and edited the film personally, and when it premiered in San Francisco on March 2, it was 132 minutes long.

The 132-minute movie was cut to 118 minutes, and then re-released at 109 minutes, but it was restored in the late 1970s to its original length, though with some scenes in dialogue and stills only as the footage was missing.

Also in the cast are Margo, Isabel Jewell, Sam Jaffe, H B Warner, Hugh Buckler, John Miltern, Lawrence Grant, John Burton, John T Murray, Max Rabinowitz, Willie Fung, Wryley Birch, John Tettener, Boyd Irwin, Leonard Mudie and David Clyde.

It was remade as the Burt Bacharach-Hal David musical film Lost Horizon by director Charles Jarrott in 1972.

It was was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2016 as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

The cast are Ronald Colman as Robert Conway, Jane Wyatt as Sondra, Edward Everett Horton as Lovett, John Howard as George Conway, Thomas Mitchell as Barnard, Margo as Maria, Isabel Jewell as Gloria, H B Warner as Chang, Sam Jaffe as High Lama, Hugh Buckler as Lord Gainsford, Sonny Bupp as Boy being carried to plane, Willie Fung as Bandit leader at fuel stop-over, Noble Johnson as Leader of porters on return journey, Richard Loo as Shanghai airport official, Margaret McWade as Missionary, Leonard Mudie as Foreign Secretary, David Torrence as Prime Minister, Victor Wong as Bandit leader, Chief John Big Tree as Porter, John Miltern, Lawrence Grant, John Burton, John T Murray, Max Rabinowitz, Wryley Birch, John Tettener, Boyd Irwin, Leonard Mudie and David Clyde.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,210

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/