Lost Horizon

Lost Horizon. 1937 Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, John Howard, Sam Jaffe
Director: Frank Capra
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Robert Conway (Colman) is England's new Foreign Secretary, having spent time before this as a writer, soldier, and diplomat. In 1935 China, he has one last task: rescuing 90 westerners from the city of Baskul, which is under siege from armed revolutionaries. Conway flies out on the last plane, which unknown to him, has been hijacked. After a long flight to seemingly nowhere, the plane runs out of fuel and crashes in the Himalayas, killing the hijacker.

Chang (H.B. Warner) rescues Conway and his companions and takes them to Shangri-La, a valley paradise sheltered from the cold, and led by the High Lama (Jaffe). The High Lama is dying, and has selected Conway after reading his writings to keep the place going. Conway himself grows to love Shangri-La, as do most of his crew, but his younger brother George (Howard) is determined to leave no matter what. Eventually, George talks him into leaving, but Robert soon makes his way back to the paradise, returning to Sondra (Wyatt), who he had been smitten with prior to departure.

Lost Horizon is noted for introducing the name "Shangri-La", which obviously has become a household word. It was also the subject of an elaborate restoration process, after several reels of the original negative detetiorated during the late 1960s. Following World War II, subsequent prints were released to theaters and to television, downplaying the sympathy shown for the Chinese, as well as reducing any supposed Communist themes out of the film. With help from the UCLA Film and Television Archive, Columbia restored the film the best they could, having found the complete 132 minute soundtrack. Seven minutes of the movie, here replaced by still pictures of the actors in costume while the soundtrack played, were either lost, or deemed in too poor condition to use. Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies has also said that the first two reels of the movie were burned by Frank Capra after a terrible preview of the movie, and that footage has never been restored. There is also a lengthy disclaimer before the film begins explaining the restoration process for those unaware. My opinion was, the use of still pictures did not distract me, or cheapen the viewing experience.

Highly recommended.