Lost Horizon (1937)
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Director: Frank Capra
Honors:
Somewhere in the world lies a land secluded by great
mountains where people live in peace and harmony, where troubles and sorrows
are foreign ideas, this is the premise of Frank Capra’s surprising epic motion
picture Lost Horizon. For years
Colombia would be just a minor studio where Frank Capra brought creditability
and honor. Here he takes a turn in his style of films, producing a large
fantasy adventure picture based on a recently popular novel. A film filed with
mystery and intrigue, Lost Horizon
would be different in genre and greater scale picture that came to hurt Capra’s
relationship with his studio, though in the long run added to his legacy in
cinema.
Lost Horizon is a
fantasy drama about a group of people that discover a strange, almost mythical,
utopian land hidden in the mountains of Tibet, and how they react to its overly
peaceful nature of its existence. Fleeing an uprising in China, a group of
westerns make their getaway by airplane, which is hijacked, crashing into the
Himalayan Mountains. There they are rescued by a man named Chang (H.B. Warner)
and his men, taking the crash survivors to their home of Shangri-La, a valley
sheltered in the mountains from the outside world where its inhabitants live in
a utopian society.
At first all of the survivors are weary of this strangely
perfect world where everyone contributes to society in harmony. Robert Conway
(Ronald Colman), the leader of the westerners, is made known to how they were
brought to this land was no mistake, but that Conway holds similar values as
the lands founder, the High Lama (Sam Jaffe), whom wishes to pass on the duties
of watching over Shangri-La to Conway upon his death. The remaining survivors
come to embrace the land and its inhabitants, except for Robert’s brother
George (John Tiomkin) who persuades his brother to leave with him to return to
civilization, only to have George shortly after leaving go mad upon learning
that Shangri-La is in fact utopia on Earth, and all the legends they learned there
was true. Robert alone makes it back to England, but is only drawn to get back
to Shangri-La on his own, where his destiny has led him.
The picture is a remarkably progressive film with enormous
scope and intriguing ideas for a plot. It is a real surprise to see a film of
this size and quality to come out of “poverty row” Colombia Pictures. It is
evident that Lost Horizon was a
picture of great excellence in production and vision. With the film comes a
story that carries heavily socialistic themes in the mysterious Shangri-La. In
a time before the Cold War and World War II such strong depictions of a socialism-like
style of living as a perfect society would not be as much of a problem as the
production would see years later. Lost
Horizon would be a new benchmark for Frank Capra and Colombia in filmmaking
value, but due to its high costs and struggle on returns it would create a rift
between director and studio head Harry Cohn.
The picture is presented as a mystery, fantasy style of film.
We, the audience, discover the mysteries of Shangri-La alongside the cast of
outsiders brought into this new land. Led by Robert Conway, played by Ronald
Colman, his demeanor is calm and cautiously interested, supplying as the main
character we follow throughout. Despite being anchored to Conway, part of our
natural interest and mistrust in this utopia being too good to be true, we parallel
with the remaining outsiders. The bickering characters of Alexander P. Lovett
and Henry Barnard, played respectfully by common supporting actors Edward
Everett Horton and Thomas Mitchell, provide comedy and manifest the turn from suspicious
mistrust to acceptance of Shangri-La. The even more minor character of Gloria,
played by Isabel Jewell, provides an interesting idea that Shangri-La cures
here of her terminal illness, making her find a new passion for living. The
only person suspicious of Shangri-La throughout is Robert’s brother, George,
played by John Howard in his first real major role. George holds suspicion
throughout, never accepting the perfection that makes the land work, and when
he frees himself of Shangri-La only to discover that what was taught in this
land was true, it drives him mad in panicked disbelief, killing himself. The
characters provide the full kaleidoscope of emotions and viewpoints of how this
mysterious land would affect people.
What really makes the story work is how the people of
Shangri-La act and their effect on the “regular” characters. Initially they are
introduced to the land by Chang, played by gentlemanly and proper British actor
H.B. Warner. He provides as the guiding hand, but leaves our heroes, and the
audience, wanting to learn more, as if Chang is holding back an awful truth. Conway
becomes smitten by the beauty of Sondra, played by the Jane Wyatt in her first
great role, and perhaps most memorable film role, Sondra is the reason Robert
starts to believe Shangri-La is perhaps for real and not a facade where
something will go wrong. The mysterious High Lama would be played by the Sam
Jaffe is heavy make-up that took many attempts at reshoots to get right for
Capra. The High Lama is the founder of the community and leader of the people,
but is never seen outside of his little room during the picture. This adds
extra mystery, but as he passes away from the age of over 200 years old, and hands
the reigns to Conway to watch over Shangri-La, once again the audience is
beginning to believe in the city. Despite all the buildup of positives, it is
the character of Maria, played by Mexican born actress known simply as Margo,
who keeps the suspicion alive, claiming she was kept from leaving and that the
myth of people not aging in Shangri-La is just a lie, eaming with George to
escape Shangri-La. We end up discovering that Maria was the one not telling the
truth as she dies of old age after rapidly aging once outside of Shangri-La. The
whole motion picture keeps you on your toes, not knowing what is to come next
with all these characters and perceptions.
It is quite a mystery how Lost Horizon could have ever been made by Frank Capra. After his
major successes of It happened One Night,
which swept the Oscars, Lady for a Day,
and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Capra
gained his power to decide his own next project, choosing the popular 1933
novel by James Hilton. Capra would make many creative decisions that add to the
story on film that where not seen in the novel and few would find such minor
changes to be bothersome to the overall theme and mystery. Originally given a
budget of $1.25 million, an enormous sum for Colombia, the final cost of total
production would be over twice as much, totaling over $2.6 million after it was
finally finished, but this was no ordinary motion picture to be produced.
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| The large set of the lamasery. |
The set for Shangri-La and the lamasery would be the largest
set ever constructed in Hollywood, taking up an entire street corner on
Hollywood Way, so large that it would be a tourist destination that people
loved to pass by during production. For scenes in the freezing cold of the
Himalayas Capra went for authenticity in the frigidness, renting a large
commercial freezer to use as a sound stage. This allowed the use of real snow
(crushed and blown ice) and authentic breathe vapors to be used, which is
visible of screen, valuable details commonly looked over in productions. That
freezer alone would be an extensive cost, but the extreme cold would cause production
equipment to malfunction, costing precious time and made for a valuable loss.
The production would be kept in Southern California, but in many different
locations to present various settings, creating the costliness of moving large
crews to many locals. To attempt to cut time, Capra used multiple cameras to
capture moments from more than one angle simultaneously, but even so the schedule
went long, and costs were very high.
Upon completion of principle photography the first cut of
the picture would be over six hours. That would obviously be whittled down, producing
a cut of three and a half hours, with Colombia considering releasing the
picture in two parts. After a disastrous previewing of the film Capra refilmed
scenes, including all containing the High Lama, and continued to cut away parts
of the picture, including the bookended beginning and ending (which alone
shaved off 10 minutes). To studio head Harry Cohn’s disgust the release date
was pushed back until Capra got it down to the 132 minutes, deeming it
completed.
Originally the film was released show in a roadshow format,
where reserved seating for limited showings to create a more prestigious
atmosphere to the picture, but in this matter it produced low returns at the
box office. Cohn would take control of the picture, cut out 14 minutes of the
film, and released widely to attempt to make some money back. Capra would file
suit over the mishandling of his film as well for unmet payments due to him by
the studio, which led to a major quarrel between he and Cohn. Capra would only
make two more films for Colombia to fulfill his contract, leaving the studio he
had worked for since 1928. The film would not make a profit for five years when
it was rereleased, and due to World War II the film was cut down more to skirt
around political issues around wartime. By the 1952 rerelease of the Lost Horizon, the film was only 92
minutes long. Further cutting was done so in order to not create as much
sympathy for Chinese characters and to downplay as many Communist themes in a
socialist utopia.
Due to so many cuts through the years, it was believed that
much of original film was lost. A preservation effort began in 1973 that would
attempt to bring Lost Horizon bake to
the original glory of its initial release reclaiming much of the lost
footage. Of the original 132 minutes reassembled
with the aid of the original full soundtrack found as the blueprint, the full
film was reconstructed with reels in condition ranging from good to very poor.
However, seven minutes of footage are still missing from the rots of time, with
preservationists only able to recreate the scenes with still images and the
soundtrack playing behind it. It is sad to think that a once great film can be
cut up and partially destroyed, but it serves as a testament to the history of
a filmmaker, a studio, a film, and the time in which it was produced and
released.
Despite all the devastating limitations put on the original
film by Harry Cohn Lost Horizon would
still be praised by many critics. At that year’s Academy Awards Lost Horizon would be found all over the
list of nominations. Taking home the awards for best art direction and editing,
two awards very well deserved for a production of that size and detail, the
film was also nominated for best picture, best supporting actor (H.B. Warner),
best original score, best sound, and best assistant director.
It is clearly seen how much time, money, and care went into
the production of Lost Horizon by
Frank Capra, and it would be unfortunate to see him not appreciate it to the
fullest. Contemporary audiences would appreciate the picture years after, even
in its mangled up state. Imagine what Capra would have done if he had more time
and money. He could have filmed in magnificent color, with finer detail instead
of being forced to photograph in common black and white and relying on stack
footage for Himalayan hiking scenes. One may be able to see just what kind of a
visionary Capra was with such a picture that was far from his common everyman
films, including Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, or It’s a Wonderful Life.
You do not hear much about Lost Horizon, though it clearly left an impact, even a musical remake
in 1973. Shangri-La would become a name in the American lexicon as a city of
utopia, a name whose origin is lost by the younger generations. For a short
time Camp David, the Presidential getaway in the wood s of Maryland, would be
named Shangri-La by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Adaptations to the story
on radio, Broadway, and television would resound in time, but it is Frank
Capra’s visionary film that sparked the imaginations of many to see the wonders
of Shangri-La.
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