Lost Horizon (1937)
Directed by Frank Capra

Film Review

The film that made Shangri-La a household word was also one of Frank Capra's most ambitious productions.  At a cost of 2.5 million dollars, the film consumed half of Columbia Pictures' annual budget and required the construction of the largest set that had ever been built in Hollywood at that time.  Stephen Goosson's lavish Art Deco realisation of an Eastern Utopia continues to impress with its elaborate design and breathtaking scale.  Add to that a convincing recreation of the Himalayan mountains and some beautiful chiaroscuro photography and the result is a visually alluring cinematic dream that represents the best in Hollywood filmmaking in the late 1930s.

James Hilton is reputed to have written the novel on which the film was based in just six weeks.  The film itself took somewhat longer to make - two years in fact, with a shoot that lasted around 100 days.  The time and effort that went into making Lost Horizon are immediately apparent from the quality of the end result - a timeless masterpiece with production values that are virtually unsurpassed for this era.   Although the film would be a major commercial success, its preview screening was unfavourable and prompted Capra to remove and destroy the first two reels.  The film has received various cuts subsequently but has been recently restored, as far as possible, to a run time of 128 minutes.

One of the reasons for the film's immense success when it was first released was the popularity of its lead actor, Ronald Colman, an English actor renowned for his cultured Home Counties accent and quintessentially British air of gentle authority.  Colman is perfect for the part he plays in this film, an idealistic politician with a dash of the romantic hero.  Lost Horizon was nominated for five Oscars (including Best Picture) and won awards in two categories: Best Editing and Best Art Direction.  It was remade in 1973 as a musical, directed by Charles Jarrott, a hopelessly ill-judged venture that was both a critical and a commercial failure.

Whilst the exotic setting of Lost Horizon is atypical for Capra (it could hardly be further removed from the middle America backdrop that features in most of his films), the themes it encompasses are recognisably Capraesque.   Frank Capra was a director who is renowned for his deep-seated belief in the intrinsic goodness of human beings, a belief that is reflected in virtually all of his films.  Time and again, Capra shows us individuals who somehow rise above adversity and their own moral failings to find a better life.  Lost Horizon is an example of this, but it is somewhat more ambiguous than many of the director's latter films, and has a dark edge of cynicism.  Attractive as it may seem at first, this vision of Utopia is on reflection quite disturbing, and has more than a whiff of fascistic idealism about it.  Surely, a world without adversity is not one where human beings will be able to exercise free will and achieve their fill potential.   With nothing to strive for, all human creativity will be vanquished and life will cease to have any meaning.  The Utopia that Capra shows us is both a delusion and a trap, something to be avoided at all costs.

Film Synopsis

1935.  As bloody revolution sweeps across China, British diplomat Robert Conway is charged with evacuating Westerners from the city of Baskul.  Conway delays his own escape until the last minute, on a small aeroplane which also carries his younger brother George, palaeontologist Alexander Lovett, crooked businessman Henry Barnard and T.B.-afflicted prostitute Gloria Stone.   Conway is surprised when he realises that, instead of flying east to Shanghai, the plane is heading west, towards the Himalayan mountains.   The plane then crashes into the snow but the passengers survive and are soon greeted by a party of Tibetans who take them to their lamasery, which they have named Shangri-La.  Conway can hardly believe what he sees.  Shangri-La, a vast and beautiful edifice inhabited by happy people, appears to match his vision of Utopia.  According to their guide, Chang, the people here can live for hundreds of years, thanks to the pure air and the stress-free lives they lead.  Conway is taken to Sondra, the High Lama, and learns that he was the man who founded the community two hundred years ago.  Sondra, an old man who is near to death, explains that it was he who arranged for Conway to be brought to Shangri-La, so that he could take over as High Lama.   Whilst the diplomat is tempted to stay, his brother insists that they must return to civilisation and is prepared to use violence to get his own way...