The film exceeded its original budget by more than $776,000 and took five years to earn back its cost. The serious financial crisis it created for Columbia Pictures damaged the partnership between Capra and studio head Harry Cohn, as well as the friendship between Capra and Riskin.[5][verification needed]
In 1935, a revolutionary uprising drives terrified Westerners to the airport in Baskul, China. The evacuation is organized by writer, soldier, and diplomat Robert Conway, before he is to return to the United Kingdom and become Foreign Secretary. He flies out with the last four evacuees, bound for Shanghai. Unbeknownst to the passengers — paleontologist Alexander Lovett; notorious swindler Henry Barnard; bitter, terminally ill Gloria Stone; and Conway's younger brother George — their pilot has been forcibly replaced and their aircraft hijacked. It eventually runs out of fuel and crashes deep in the Himalayas, killing their abductor.
The group is rescued by Chang and his men and taken to Shangri-La, an idyllic valley sheltered from the bitter cold. The contented inhabitants are led by the mysterious High Lama. Initially anxious to return to civilization, most of the newcomers grow to love Shangri-La, including Gloria, who miraculously seems to be recovering from her illness. Conway is particularly enchanted, especially when he meets Sondra, a teacher who has grown up in Shangri-La. However, George and Maria, another young woman living there, are determined to leave.
Conway eventually has an audience with the High Lama and learns that he is a European Catholic priest, Father Perrault, who arrived in the area many years ago. The founder of Shangri-La is said to be two hundred years old, preserved, like the other residents, by the magical properties of the paradise he has created, but is finally dying and needs someone wise in the ways of the modern world to keep it safe. Having read Conway's writings, Sondra believed he is the one; the Lama agreed with her and arranged for Conway's abduction. The old man names Conway his successor and then peacefully passes away.
George refuses to believe the Lama's fantastic story, and that Maria is much older than the 20 she claims to be. Chang says Maria was brought to Shangri-La in 1888 and was 20 at the time, which would make her 66 or 67. (Sondra claims to be 30.) Uncertain and torn between love and loyalty, Conway reluctantly agrees to accompany George and Maria with a group of porters returning to their homes. The porters gradually leave the trio behind, even shooting at them for their amusement. However, the shots trigger an avalanche that buries the natives.
After more grueling travel, Maria collapses in the snow. Conway picks her up and carries her to the shelter of a cave. There they see she has died, her withered face revealing her true age. George loses his sanity and jumps to his death. Conway continues on, finally collapsing. He is found and taken to a Chinese mission, where a search party sent from Britain meets him. The ordeal has caused him to lose his memory of Shangri-La.
On the long voyage back to the United Kingdom, he remembers everything; he tells his story and then jumps ship in Singapore. Searchers pursue him back to the Himalayas, but are unable to follow him any further. In the final scene, he reaches the pass leading to Shangri-La.
Frank Capra had read the James Hilton novel while filming It Happened One Night, and he intended to make Lost Horizon his next project. When Ronald Colman, his first and only choice for the role of Robert Conway, proved to be unavailable, Capra decided to wait and made Mr. Deeds Goes to Town instead.[9]
Harry Cohn authorized a budget of $1.25 million for the film, the largest amount ever allocated to a project up to that time.[10] According to a 1986 Variety interview with Frank Capra Jr., his father had wanted to shoot the film in color, but because the only suitable stock footage he intended to incorporate into the film, such as scenes from a documentary about the Himalayas, was in black and white, he was forced to change his plans.[11] In 1985, Capra Sr. said the decision to film in black and white was made because three-strip Technicolor was new and fairly expensive, and the studio was unwilling to increase the film's budget so he could utilize it.[12]
An often repeated story concerns casting the part of the High Lama. After a screen test of 56-year-old retired stage actor A.E. Anson, Capra decided that he was just right for the part. He made a call to the actor's home, and the housekeeper who answered the phone was told to relay the message to Anson that the part was his. Not long after, the housekeeper called back telling Capra that when Anson heard the news, he had a heart attack and died. Subsequently, Capra offered the part to 58-year-old Henry B. Walthall. He died before shooting began. Finally, to play it safer age-wise, Capra cast Sam Jaffe, who was just 45.[13] This is disputed, however, by camera logs dating back to the production that indicate Anson never tested for the part. Film historian Kendall Miller surmises that this story originated as an effort to add drama to Jaffe's casting.[14]
From the beginning, Capra ran into difficulties that resulted in serious cost overruns. Principal photography began on March 23, 1936, and by the time it was completed on July 17, the director had spent $1.6 million.[15] Contributing to the added expenses was the filming of snow scenes and aircraft interiors at the Los Angeles Ice and Cold Storage Warehouse, where the low temperature affected the equipment and caused lengthy delays. The Streamline Moderne sets representing Shangri-La, designed by Stephen Goosson, had been constructed adjacent to Hollywood Way, a busy thoroughfare by day, which necessitated filming at night and heavily added to overtime expenses. Many exteriors were filmed on location in Palm Springs, Lucerne Valley, the Ojai Valley, the Mojave Desert, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and in what is now Westlake Village, adding the cost of transporting cast, crew, and equipment to the swelling budget.[16]
Capra also used multiple cameras to cover every scene from several angles, and by the time shooting ended, he had used 1.1 million feet of film. For one scene lasting four minutes, he shot 6,000 feet, the equivalent of one hour of screen time. He spent six days filming Sam Jaffe performing the High Lama's monologues, then reshot the scenes twice, once with Walter Connolly, because it was felt Jaffe's makeup was unconvincing and he looked too young for the role. A total of 40 minutes of footage featuring the High Lama eventually was trimmed to the 12 that appeared in the final cut. Filming took one hundred days, 34 more than scheduled. The film's final cost, including prints and promotional advertising, was $2,626,620, and it did not make a profit until it was reissued in 1942.[16]
The first cut of the film was six hours long. The studio considered releasing it in two parts, but eventually decided the idea was impractical. Working with editors Gene Havlick and Gene Milford, Capra managed to trim the running time to 3½ hours for the first preview in Santa Barbara on November 22, 1936. Following a showing of the screwball comedyTheodora Goes Wild, the audience was not receptive to a drama of epic length. Many walked out, and those who remained laughed at sequences intended to be serious.[17][18] The feedback was mostly negative, and Capra was so distraught, he fled to Lake Arrowhead and remained in seclusion there for several days. He later claimed he burned the first two reels of the film, an account disputed by Milford, who noted setting the nitrate film on fire would have created a devastating explosion.[19]
Following the disastrous preview, Capra made extensive cuts and, on January 12, 1937, reshot scenes involving the High Lama written by Sidney Buchman, who declined screen credit for his work. The new footage placed more emphasis on the growing desperation of the world situation at the time. A world premiere was held at the Lincoln Theater in Miami Beach, Florida on February 18, 1937.[20][21]
Still unhappy with the film's length, Harry Cohn intervened and edited the film personally. When the edited version premiered in San Francisco on March 2,[22] it was 132 minutes long. During the film's initial release in selected cities, it was a roadshow attraction,[17] with only two presentations per day and tickets sold on a reserved-seat basis. Because the box-office returns were so low, the studio head cut an additional 14 minutes to slightly less than two hours (118 minutes) before the film went into general release on September 1. Due primarily to the cuts made without his approval, Capra later filed a lawsuit against Columbia, citing "contractual disagreements", among them, the studio's refusal to pay him a $100,000 semi-annual salary payment due him. A settlement was reached on November 27, 1937, with Capra collecting his money and being relieved of the obligation of making one of the five films required by his contract. In 1985, Capra claimed that Cohn, whom he described as the "Jewish producer," trimmed the film simply so theaters could have more daily showings and increase the film's chance of turning a profit.[23]
[T]here is no denying the opulence of the production, the impressiveness of the sets, the richness of the costuming, the satisfying attention to large and small detail which makes Hollywood at its best such a generous entertainer. We can deride the screen in its lesser moods, but when the West Coast impresarios decide to shoot the works the resulting pyrotechnics bathe us in a warm and cheerful glow. ... The penultimate scenes are as vivid, swift, and brilliantly achieved as the first. Only the conclusion itself is somehow disappointing. But perhaps that is inescapable, for there can be no truly satisfying end to any fantasy. ... Mr. Capra was guilty of a few directorial clichés, but otherwise it was a perfect job. Unquestionably the picture has the best photography and sets of the year. By all means it is worth seeing.[24]
Nugent later named it one of the 10 best films of the year.[25]
The Hollywood Reporter called it "an artistic tour de force ... in all ways, a triumph for Frank Capra."[10]Variety called it a "sterling" adaptation of Hilton's novel that "can take its place with the best prestige pictures of the industry."[26]The Film Daily declared it an "Impressive and artistic drama" and "distinctly a worthwhile contribution to the industry."[27]
Less enthusiastic was Otis Ferguson, who in his review for National Board of Review Magazine observed, "This film was made with obvious care and expense, but it will be notable in the future only as the first wrong step in a career that till now has been a denial of the very tendencies in pictures which this film represents."[10]John Mosher of The New Yorker praised the "beautiful flying scenes" and the "wild and terrifying bits of struggle on mountain peaks and crags", but found the adaptation in general to be "somewhat longish and wearisome on the screen. I thought the old lama would go on talking forever."[28] Joseph McBride in a later biography notes that Capra's emphasis on theme rather than people was evident in the film; he also considered the film a financial "debacle".[16]
Nothing reveals men's characters more than their Utopias... this Utopia closely resembles a film star's luxurious estate on Beverly Hills: flirtatious pursuits through grape arbours, splashings and divings in blossomy pools under improbable waterfalls, and rich and enormous meals... something incurably American: a kind of aerated idealism ('We have one simple rule, Kindness') and, of course, a girl (Miss Jane Wyatt, one of the dumber stars), who has read all the best books (this one included) and has the coy comradely manner of a not too advanced schoolmistress.
For Greene, the film is "very long" and "very dull ... as soon as the opening scenes are over". He also regretted the film's missed opportunities: "If the long, dull ethical sequences had been cut to the bone there would have been plenty of room for the real story: the shock of Western crudity and injustice on a man returned from a more gentle and beautiful way of life".
In 1942, the film was re-released as The Lost Horizon of Shangri-La. A lengthy drunken speech delivered by Robert Conway, in which he cynically mocks war and diplomacy, had already been deleted in the general release version. Capra felt the film made no sense without the scene,[10] and in later years film critic Leslie Halliwell described the missing 12 minutes as "vital".[36] They were restored years later.
In 1952, a 92-minute version of the film was released. It aimed to play down features of the utopia that suggested communist ideals, a sensitive point after a civil war in China resulted in the ascension of Mao Zedong's Communist Party in that country in 1949.
In 1973, the AFI initiated a restoration of the film. The project was undertaken by the UCLA Film and Television Archive (under the supervision of Robert Gitt) and Columbia Pictures and took 13 years to complete. Although all 132 minutes of the original soundtrack were recovered, only 125 minutes of film could be found, so the seven minutes of missing film footage were replaced with a combination of publicity photos of the actors in costume taken during filming and still frames depicting the missing scenes.[17][37]
Lost Horizon was adapted as a radio play starring Ronald Colman and Donald Crisp for the September 15, 1941, broadcast of Lux Radio Theatre. Colman reprised his role for the November 27, 1946, broadcast of Academy Award[38] and the July 24, 1948, broadcast of Favorite Story.
In 1946, Ronald Colman also made a three-record, 78 rpm album based on the film for American Decca Records. The score for the album was by Victor Young.[39]
Lost Horizon suffered various losses to its original running time over the years:
March 1937 premiere version: 132 minutes
September 1937 general release version: 118 minutes
1942 re-release: 110 minutes
1948 re-release: restored to 118 minutes
1952 television version: 92 minutes — the only version in circulation for several decades.
1986 photochemical restoration: 132 minutes — 125 minutes of footage synchronised to complete premiere version soundtrack; film freeze frames and on-set publicity photos fill in the blank sections.
1998 digital restoration: 132 minutes — further work was carried out on the 1986 restoration.
2016 all-new 4K digital restoration: 132 minutes – 126 minutes of footage synchronised to premiere soundtrack, after an extra minute of missing film was discovered.
2024 on 19th November a new 133 minute 4K UHD version with Dolby Vision will be released by Sony as part of the 'Frank Capra at Columbia' boxset; English DTS-HD MA Mono Audio; Includes Commentary with Charles Champlin and Bob Gitt, Alternate Ending, 4 Featurettes, 5 Theatrical Teasers & Trailers
All three restorations have been released or licensed numerous times worldwide on home video by Sony and its predecessor, Columbia Pictures. The 1986 restoration was released on VHS and LaserDisc, while the 1998 restoration was issued on DVD.[41] The 2016 restoration has been released as a digital download and on Blu-ray in various territories, including Australia, the United States and much of Europe.[42]
The 1953 short story "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke, set in a Tibetan lamasery, references the film, with the characters nicknaming the lamasery "Shangri-La", and referring to the chief lama as "Sam Jaffe".
Author Harlan Ellison alludes to the film in a 1995 television commentary for the program Sci-Fi Buzz, wherein he laments what he perceives as a prevailing cultural illiteracy.[45]
A few seconds of the film can be seen in the Mad Men Season 7 premiere, "Time Zones" (airdate April 13, 2014), when the character Don Draper briefly watches a late-night broadcast featuring the opening intertitle while visiting his wife Megan in California.[46]
In a Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schultz published February 20, 1974, Woodstock plays trivia with Snoopy asking "Who was the pilot of the plane that took Ronald Colman to Shangri-la in 'Lost Horizon'?"
Frank Russell Capra was an Italian-American film director, producer, and screenwriter who was the creative force behind several major award-winning films of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Italy and raised in Los Angeles from the age of five, his rags-to-riches story has led film historians such as Ian Freer to consider him the "American Dream personified".
It Happened One Night is a 1934 American pre-Code romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed and co-produced by Frank Capra, in collaboration with Harry Cohn, in which a pampered socialite tries to get out from under her father's thumb and falls in love with a roguish reporter. The screenplay by Robert Riskin is based on the August 1933 short story "Night Bus" by Samuel Hopkins Adams, which provided the shooting title. Classified as a "pre-Code" production, the film is among the last romantic comedies created before the MPPDA began rigidly enforcing the 1930 Motion Picture Production Code in July 1934. It Happened One Night was released just four months prior to that enforcement.
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas supernatural drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra. It is based on the short story and booklet "The Greatest Gift" self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943, which itself is loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol. The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams in order to help others in his community and whose thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve bring about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody. Clarence shows George all the lives he touched and what the world would be like if he had not existed.
Lady for a Day is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra. The screenplay by Robert Riskin is based on the 1929 short story "Madame La Gimp" by Damon Runyon. It was the first film for which Capra received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director and the first Columbia Pictures release to be nominated for Best Picture. Capra also directed its 1961 remake, Pocketful of Miracles.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is a 1936 American comedy-drama romance film directed by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur in her first featured role. Based on the 1935 short story "Opera Hat" by Clarence Budington Kelland, which appeared in serial form in The American Magazine, the screenplay was written by Robert Riskin in his fifth collaboration with Frank Capra.
The Awful Truth is a 1937 American screwball comedy film directed by Leo McCarey, and starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. Based on the 1922 play The Awful Truth by Arthur Richman, the film recounts a distrustful rich couple who begin divorce proceedings, only to interfere with one another's romances.
Lost Horizon is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton. The book was turned into a film, also called Lost Horizon, in 1937 by director Frank Capra and a lavish musical remake in 1973 by producer Ross Hunter with music by Burt Bacharach. It is the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamasery located high in the mountains of Tibet.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American lighthearted political satire film directed by Frank Capra, starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart, and featuring Claude Rains and Edward Arnold. The film is about a naive, newly appointed United States senator who fights against government corruption, and was written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story "The Gentleman from Montana". It was loosely based on the life of Montana US Senator Burton Wheeler, who underwent a similar experience when he was investigating the Warren Harding administration.
James Hilton was an English novelist and screenwriter. He is best remembered for his novels Lost Horizon, Goodbye, Mr. Chips and Random Harvest, as well as co-writing screenplays for the films Camille (1936) and Mrs. Miniver (1942), the latter earning him an Academy Award.
Lost Horizon is a 1973 musical fantasy adventure film directed by Charles Jarrott and starring Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann, Sally Kellerman, George Kennedy, Michael York, Olivia Hussey, Bobby Van, James Shigeta, Charles Boyer and John Gielgud. It was also the final film produced by Ross Hunter. The film is a remake of Frank Capra's 1937 film of the same name, with a screenplay by Larry Kramer. Both stories were adapted from James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon.
Jane Waddington Wyatt was an American actress. She starred in a number of Hollywood films, such as Frank Capra's Lost Horizon, but is likely best known for her role as homemaker and mother Margaret Anderson on the CBS and NBC television comedy series Father Knows Best, and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the science-fiction television series Star Trek. Wyatt was a three-time Emmy Award–winner.
Stephen Goosson was an American film set designer and art director.
Pocketful of Miracles is a 1961 American comedy film starring Glenn Ford and Bette Davis, produced and directed by Frank Capra, filmed in Panavision. The screenplay by Hal Kanter and Harry Tugend was based on Robert Riskin's screenplay for the 1933 film Lady for a Day, which was adapted from the 1929 Damon Runyon short story "Madame La Gimp". That original 1933 film was also directed by Capra—one of two films that he originally directed and later remade, the other being Broadway Bill (1934) and its remake Riding High (1950).
Meet John Doe is a 1941 American comedy drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra, written by Robert Riskin, and starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward Arnold. The film is about a "grassroots" political campaign created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist with the involvement of a hired homeless man and pursued by the paper's wealthy owner. It became a box-office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story. It was ranked No. 49 in AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Cheers. In 1969, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. It was the first of two features Capra made for Warner Brothers, after he left Columbia Pictures, the other being Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
The Bitter Tea of General Yen is a 1933 American pre-Code drama war film directed by Frank Capra and starring Barbara Stanwyck, and featuring Nils Asther and Walter Connolly. Based on the 1930 novel of the same name by Grace Zaring Stone, the film is about an American missionary in Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War who gets caught in a battle while trying to save a group of orphans. Knocked unconscious, she is saved by a Chinese general warlord who brings her to his palace. When the general falls in love with the naive young woman, she fights her attraction to the powerful general and resists his flirtation, yet remains at his side when his fortune turns.
Henry Brazeale Walthall was an American stage and film actor. He appeared as the Little Colonel in D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915).
For the Love of Mike is a 1927 American silent romantic drama film. Directed by Frank Capra, it starred Claudette Colbert and Ben Lyon. It is now considered to be a lost film.
Flight is a 1929 American pre-Code adventure and aviation film directed by Frank Capra. The film stars Jack Holt, Lila Lee and Ralph Graves, who also came up with the story, for which Capra wrote the dialogue. Dedicated to the United States Marine Corps, the production was greatly aided by their full cooperation.
Ladies of Leisure is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Frank Capra and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Ralph Graves. The screenplay by Jo Swerling is based on the 1924 play Ladies of the Evening by Milton Herbert Gropper, which ran for 159 performances on Broadway.
Arthur Eugene Milford was an American film and television editor with about one hundred feature film credits. Among his most noted films are Lost Horizon, On the Waterfront, A Face in the Crowd, and Wait Until Dark.
↑ "For Your Amusement", by Eddie Cohen, The Miami News, February 18, 1937, p30 ("'Lost Horizon' will be shown to the Lincoln theater audience tonight at 8:30 for the first time in the world.")
↑ "Notables Attracted to World Premiere— Social and Theatrical Leaders Throng Lincoln Theater For Picture 'Lost Horizon'", The Miami Herald, February 19, 1937, p.5
↑ "'Lost Horizon,' Film Epic, Has Premiere at Geary", by Ada Hanifin The San Francisco Examiner, March 2, 1937, p.17
Michael, Paul, ed. The Great Movie Book: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference Guide to the Best-loved Films of the Sound Era. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1980. ISBN0-13-363663-1.
Poague, Leland. The Cinema of Frank Capra: An Approach to Film Comedy. London: A.S Barnes and Company Ltd., 1975. ISBN0-498-01506-8.
Scherle, Victor and William Levy. The Films of Frank Capra. Secaucus, New Jersey: The Citadel Press, 1977. ISBN0-8065-0430-7.
Wiley, Mason and Damien Bona. Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987. ISBN0-345-34453-7.
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