Lost Horizon (1937)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Robert Riskin (screenplay)
James Hilton (novel)

Release Date:

1 September 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

Tagline:

Millions to make it ! . . . Two years in production ! . . . The best seller that set a new style in romance floods the screen with splendor and drama surpassing Frank Capra's greatest past achievements. "Mr Deeds" and "It Happened One Night".

Plot:

A plane crash delivers a group of people to the secluded land of Shangri-La -- but is it the miraculous utopia it appears to be?

Plot Keywords:

Shangri La | Diplomat | Paradise | Illness | Love

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 5 nominations

Cast

Ronald Colman	...	Robert Conway
Jane Wyatt	...	Sondra
Edward Everett Horton	...	Lovett
John Howard	...	George Conway
Thomas Mitchell	...	Barnard
Margo	...	Maria
Isabel Jewell	...	Gloria
H.B. Warner	...	Chang
Sam Jaffe	...	High Lama

Also Known As:

Lost Horizon of Shangri-La (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

132 min (original version) | Finland:128 min (restored version) | USA:95 min (TV version) | USA:118 min (general release version) | West Germany:97 min | Spain:128 min (DVD edition)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | West Germany:12 | Finland:K-16 | Portugal:M/12 | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #2061) | Norway:7 (original rating) | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Bronson Caves, Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

After initial reservations about Frank Capra's method of directing, Ronald Colman would eventually come to rely on him and the two would experiment with improvisations.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: Echoing the words of the critic, James Agate: 'The best film I've seen for ages, but will somebody please tell me how they got the grand piano along a footpath on which only one person can walk at a time with rope and pickaxe and with a sheer drop of three thousand feet or so?'

Quotes:

Chang: You'd be surprised, Mr. Conway, age is a limit we impose upon ourselves.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Cooler (2003)

Soundtrack:

Wiegenlied (Brahms' Lullaby), Op. 49, No. 4

Try Not to Get Lost.

British diplomat Ronald Colman and brother John Howard crash a plane with several civilians including Thomas Mitchell deep in the Himalayas and find Shangri-La. The place is literally heaven on Earth, but is it really what it seems? H.B. Warner received an Oscar nomination as the man who runs the beautiful but strange place. Frank Capra's film is really a bit dark and disturbing compared to his other famous ventures. Light-hearted in many ways, but filled with strange undertones and images, "Lost Horizon" is one of those odd films from the late-1930s that conveys some deep messages in unconventional ways. The case could be made about the film's support for communism due to several of the sequences. Good and definitely interesting, "Lost Horizon" remains one of Capra's lesser-known films that still packs a punch 65 years later. 4 stars out of 5.