Lost Horizon (1937)

100% of critics liked it
(9 reviews)
78% of users liked it
(5,175 ratings)

It took British author James Hilton six weeks to write his visionary novel Lost Horizon. It took director Frank Capra two years-and half of his home studio Columbia's annual budget-to bring it to the screen. After a lengthy preamble, inviting audiences to imagine their own ideas of Utopia, the film… More It took British author James Hilton six weeks to write his visionary novel Lost Horizon. It took director Frank Capra two years-and half of his home studio Columbia's annual budget-to bring it to the screen. After a lengthy preamble, inviting audiences to imagine their own ideas of Utopia, the film opens on a chaotic scene at a Chinese airfield. As hordes of bandits approach, hundreds of refugees scramble to board the last plane out. Only five people make it: Mildly disenchanted Far Eastern diplomat Robert Conway (Ronald Colman), his hotheaded younger brother George (John Howard), embezzler Barnard (Thomas Mitchell), dithery fossil expert Lovett (Edward Everett Horton) and consumptive prostitute Gloria Stone (Isabel Jewell). As the plane flies off towards the Himalayas, Robert realizes that he and his fellow passengers are heading in the wrong direction. They are, in fact, being kidnapped-but why? And where to? The plane crash-lands in the snowy Tibetan interior. The pilot is killed, but the passengers are safe. By and by, a strange caravan approaches, led by an enigmatic Chinese named Chang (H. B. Warner). Joining the caravan, Conway and his party are led through a treacherous mountain pass and into a land of temperate weather and dazzling beauty. This is Shangri-La, the idyllic lamasery presided over by the aged, wizened High Lama (Sam Jaffe). In this fertile valley, people are not encumbered by such exigencies as crime, dictators and hatred; instead, everyone is devoted to the pursuit of wisdom and self-improvement-and best of all, the aging process has been slowed to a walk, allowing people to live well past the two-century mark. Though he still does not know why he was brought here, Conway is quicker to adapt to Shangri-La than his wary fellow passengers. He even falls in love with Sondra (Jane Wyatt), an attractive, intelligent young woman. Finally granted an audience with the High Lama, Conway discovers that the old man is actually Father Perrault, the Belgian missionary who founded Shangri-La-over two hundred years earlier. Dying, the High Lama has selected Conway, whose idealism and even-handedness is world famous, to succeed him-and hopefully spread the "love thy neighbor" edict of Shangri-La to the rest of the war-torn world. Conway is willing to assume leadership, but younger brother George, his mind poisoned by spiteful Shangri-La resident Maria (Margo), insists upon escaping to the outside world. The older Conway warns that, despite her youthful appearance, Maria is well past sixty and will surely perish once she leaves Shangri-La; but Maria retorts that the high lama is insane, and that everything he has told Conway is a lie. Disillusioned, Conway agrees to leave with Jack and Maria. The trek back to civilization is a grueling one, especially for Maria, who-true to Conway's prediction-shrivels from age and dies. Appalled that he has been misled, George kills himself. Weeks later, and amnesiac Conway stumbles into a Tibetan mission, where he is rescued and brought back to England. When his memory is restored, however, Conway runs back to Shangri-La, and into the arms of Sondra. When Lost Horizon was shown to preview audiences, it ran nearly three hours-and it was a disaster. In his autobiography, Capra claims to have rescued his pet project by merely burning the first two reels and opening the film with the evacuation scene; In fact, while Capra did remove the film's "flashback" framework, he made most of his cuts in the body of the picture. The release length of Lost Horizon was 132 minutes, pared down to 119 when it when into general distribution. When it was reissued in the 1940s and 1950s, it was rather clumsily pared down to anywhere from 95 to 100 minutes. Only in the mid-1980s was Lost Horizon restored to its original length, with stills used to illustrate certain scenes for which only the soundtrack existed. While not the enormous hit Capra and Columbia had hoped it would be, Lost Horizon was popular enough to allow the name "Shangri-La" enter the household-word category. In 1973, producer Ross Hunter felt the urge to inflict a wretched musical remake onto an unsuspecting public. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 58 min.
Directed By: Frank Capra
Written By: Robert Riskin, James Hilton
Genres: Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Classics, Science Fiction & Fantasy

In Theaters: Sep 1, 1937 Wide
On DVD: Aug 31, 1999
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Boasting great production values, Frank Capra's film is still one of the most cherished fables made during the Depression era.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Classic Capra fantasy. Not wholly successful, but essential viewing.
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
...could be seen by first-time viewers as hopelessly old fashioned, but given a chance it holds up remarkably well.
Tim Dirks, Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films
Lost Horizon (1937) is a timeless, widely-acclaimed classic romantic fantasy film that was directed by Frank Capra.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

Ken S

Buddha Shrugged. I think the story Gainesburg tells at the end would make a better movie than this one.
AJ V

This is my favourtie movie of 1937. It's long, but it's worth it. It has a great story of a group of people who get stranded on an island and discover it's a utopia. I love it.
Michael G

It's easy to forget that Lost Horizon is a Frank Capra movie. It has very little of the concentrated feel good quality that most of his other movies have. It's definitely a good movie but definitely not his defining work. Sam Jaffe was incredibly frightening as the High… More
It's easy to forget that Lost Horizon is a Frank Capra movie. It has very little of the concentrated feel good quality that most of his other movies have. It's definitely a good movie but definitely not his defining work. Sam Jaffe was incredibly frightening as the High Lama. Picture Mason Verger from Hannibal raping Yoda and this guy would be the baby. I don't like how the story seemed to get rushed in the last 15 minutes and just left at that or how some of the more major characters were just kind of cut short with hushed resolution. Even if the movie was fully restored I don't think that could save it. Don't get me wrong, Lost Horizon is still a good movie, just not quintessential Capra.
Steve K

An absolute classic.
Matthew Y

Frank Capra has always been about one thing and one thing only "happiness". Characters who are happy with themselves, find happiness or share their happiness with others no matter what anyone else thinks or feels about them. Lost Horizon is about the happiest place on… More
Frank Capra has always been about one thing and one thing only "happiness". Characters who are happy with themselves, find happiness or share their happiness with others no matter what anyone else thinks or feels about them. Lost Horizon is about the happiest place on Earth Shangri-La. A Utopia where man can live ageless forever and live in peace and ever-loving bliss till the end of time. When some new and skeptical arrivals come under very strange circumstances Shangri-La is viewed doubtfully and as "too good to be true". Gradually we see changes in the characters as they adapt and accept this paradise. Is it really all that it's cracked up to be? Is there a hidden and dark secret of Shagri-La? Mankind's questioning nature and fact vs. faith beliefs are challenged in this light-hearted yet deceptively deep film from a cinematic legend. FYI: The film still has "lost" segments to it. The most complete version I saw had a vintage sound real but not enough filmed footage to coincide with it. For the missing sequences still images of the scenes are shown on screen to give the best visual presentation possible. It is a little jarring at first but most of this occurs early on and once you're 30-45 minutes into the film I think you're good to go.
Lesley N

Conway, kidnapped by Chang after a plane crash, is taken to a Tibetan Mountain Utopia where there's food for all, long life, unlimited gold, simplistic morality and refined British accents. But will he be persuaded to stay or will he go?. CONWAY You have no disputes over… More
Conway, kidnapped by Chang after a plane crash, is taken to a Tibetan Mountain Utopia where there's food for all, long life, unlimited gold, simplistic morality and refined British accents. But will he be persuaded to stay or will he go?. CONWAY You have no disputes over women? CHANG Only very rarely. You see, it would not be considered good manners to take a woman that another man wanted. CONWAY Suppose somebody wanted her so badly that he didn't give a hang if it was good manners or not? CHANG Well, in that event, it would be good manners on the part of the other man to let him have her.
Henrik S

A botched Capra that just goes on and on withou any story or character developmemt. The whole film revolves around one character and the decision he has to make, which is not enough to keep me interested, especially when there are no plot twists, no antagonists, no suspense and so… More
A botched Capra that just goes on and on withou any story or character developmemt. The whole film revolves around one character and the decision he has to make, which is not enough to keep me interested, especially when there are no plot twists, no antagonists, no suspense and so forth. What is this ? Its not really a movie. Leave it be.
Anastasia B

The more I see of Capra, the more I like him. This movie is not the typical comic Capra. I wish the lost parts of this film were available to us, so that we could see his whole vision as he wanted it. You can feel his brilliance in the chaotic, early scenes and their arresting sense… More
The more I see of Capra, the more I like him. This movie is not the typical comic Capra. I wish the lost parts of this film were available to us, so that we could see his whole vision as he wanted it. You can feel his brilliance in the chaotic, early scenes and their arresting sense of danger (the generous budget enabled Capra to use large crowds, and he makes the most of them). Rarely, on screen, have large numbers of human beings, whether screaming, shooting or pushing, seemed so frightening. The trip with the airplane: masterful exposition here, so well done that one can scarcely find fault. The scenes of refueling in a remote village are electrifying, and one isn't sure at first what's going on. Are they being attacked? No, but it takes a while to figure this out. The soaring over the clouds is mesmerizing in its simple beauty; while the crash-landing of the plane at what appears to be the foot of the mountain that leads eventually to Shangri La, is highly effective. And Capra, ever the master of film climate, offers us, briefly, a quite pretty and at the same time literally chilling sense of what it would be like to die, snowbound, in the Himalayas. (re-written here with thanks to telegonus).
Marion R

This is a fantastical movie, if you can believe the premise, it just a entertaining film.

Read all 9 featured audience ratings

Cast

            Ronald Colman as Robert Conway

            Edward Everett Horton as Alexander P. Lovett

            H.B. Warner as Chang

            Jane Wyatt as Sondra

            Sam Jaffe as High Lama

            John Howard as George Conway

            Margo as Maria

            Thomas Mitchell as Henry Barnard

            Isabel Jewell as Gloria Stone

            Hugh Buckler as Lord Gainsford

            David Torrence as Prime Minister

            Norman Ainsley
            
            Wryley Birch as Missionary

            Beatrice Blinn as Passenger

            John Burton as Wynant

            George Chan as Chinese priest

            Chief John Big Tree as Porter

            David Clyde as Steward

            Beatrice Curtis
            
            Denis D'Auburn as Aviator

            Val Duran as Talu

            Neil Fitzgerald
            
            Willie Fung as Bandit leader

            Lawrence Grant as 1st Man

            The Hall Johnson Choir
            
            Jeremy Irons Sr. as Assistant Foreign Secretary

            Boyd Irwin as Assistant Foreign Secretary

            Noble Johnson as Leader of porters

            Richard Loo as Shanghai Airport official

            Margaret McWade as Missionary

            John Miltern as Carstairs

            Henry Mowbray as Englishman

            Leonard Mudie as Senior Foreign Secretary

            John T. Murray as Meeker

            Wedgewood Nowell as Englishman

            Milton A. Owen as Fenner

            Max Rabinowitz as Seiveking

            Arthur Rankin as Passenger

            Ruth Robinson as Missionary

            Carl Stockdale as Missionary

            John Tettener as Montaigne

            Eric Wilton as Englishman

            Victor Wong as Bandit leader

            Mary Lou Dix as Passenger
See full cast

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