Lost Horizon (1937)
Auld Lang Sign Me Up
Greetings, weary travelers of the Information Superhighway. If the end-of-year chaos of the outside world has got you down, we invite you to recline at the bountiful table of another ILTBTA as we cover the Frank Capra epic Lost Horizon. All that we ask is that you enjoy this post in moderation, and please, read in peace!
Previews
What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?
Ellen: I knew nothing the first time we watched it, but as I said in the spreadsheet, “kept me guessing!”
Tyler: We first watched this during the pandemic, so it was a well-timed and -made bit of escapism. Or, as I put in The Spreadsheet, “A fun thought experiment wrapped up in an impressively shot movie.”
Plots & Feelings
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): When a revered diplomat's plane is diverted and crashes in the peaks of Tibet, he and the other survivors are guided to an isolated monastery at Shangri-La, where they wrestle with the invitation to stay.
Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):
It’s 1935, and there’s a revolutionary uprising coming to Baskul, China. The British citizens living there are desperate to get out, and intrepid soldier and diplomat Robert Conway is the man who’s going to get them out. Assisted by his younger brother George, all of the Westerners are evacuated by a series of small planes. The Conways get on the last plane out, accompanied by paleontologist Alexander Lovett, notorious swindler Henry Barnard, and bitter, terminally ill Gloria Stone. While en route to Shanghai, Robert gets drunk and reflects bitterly that though they “saved ninety white people,” they also “left ten thousand natives down there to be annihilated.” He knows the latter fact won’t make it into the report, because according to the Crown, they don’t count. George tries to comfort him with dreams of becoming Foreign Minister when they return, and Robert lays out a vision for the job that involves no war at all and kicks centuries of tradition right in the pants. He assures his baffled brother that he’s joking, and the passengers go to sleep.
Tyler: Fun fact that didn’t make it into Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?: Conway’s drunken anti-war speech on the plane was actually deleted from the original release of the film and was only included in a later re-release. Director Frank Capra thought the movie made no sense with that cut, and later filed a lawsuit against Columbia Pictures for edits made to the movie without his approval.
Tyler: And watching this now for the second time, I don’t think the speech was included in the version we watched the first time around! I completely agree with Capra in that that spiel is basically Conway’s guiding principle and the thesis of the movie, so excluding it robs the movie of some depth.
Ellen: Absolutely! We need to know that Robert is a pacifist idealist at his core, but he knows if he gets the Foreign Minister job, he’ll fall right into line. Also, talking about specifically saving white people bumps in an icky way in a modern context, but it’s also to illustrate the point that Robert doesn’t think this is the way it should be.
The group wakes up to realize they’re traveling the wrong direction! When they tap on the window to the cockpit, the man who turns around is not the British pilot with whom they thought they took off! Realizing they’ve been kidnapped, Barnard and Lovett demand they do something, but the pilot has a gun, so the Conways aren’t sure exactly what the men would propose. It’s definitely NOT going to be opening the aft door and jumping out, as Gloria attempts to do. The plane comes down to land in a little desert community, with folks on horseback riding out to meet them. The villagers promptly refuel the plane, and the mystery pilot takes off again. They keep flying into the mountains and bitter cold until the plane crashes, killing their abductor! Once again at a loss, the group is about to start a fruitless search for food when a man named Chang and his men rescue them.
Tyler: Barnard and Lovett’s impulse to want someone in charge to do something even when there's no obvious answer is so relatable.
Tyler: I thought the plane crash sequence was let down by the complete lack of score. You hear the sounds of the plane but it otherwise just kind of … happens.
Ellen: It’s interesting, because we’ve talked before about how sometimes dropping the score out can really make a moment pop, but this one did not manage it.
Tyler: 100%, it’s a delicate balance for sure.
Chang leads them through a treacherous mountain pass into a gorgeous, verdant valley called Shangri-La. Suddenly both the rescuers and refugees are wildly overdressed for the idyllic weather. Chang explains that the mountains surrounding the valley shield them from the harsh weather, but also from sending or receiving radio signals1. The group is shown to rooms in a massive villa, given new clothing, and seated at a delicious dinner. Robert takes all of this in stride, but the others are anxious and confused2. The house is richly furnished, so Chang further elaborates that they trade with a tribe of porters who visit every so often. The group decides to wait for the next time the porters so they can be escorted out, but their last arrival was expected, hrm let’s see here, two years ago?! Chang assures them it must be any day now!
Two weeks pass, and everyone except for Robert is still pretty uneasy. As Lovett writes in his journal, “this place is too mysterious.” Barnard spends his time needling Lovett and stealing gold from the hills, and Gloria, who according to her doctors was supposed to be dead six months ago, has taken up advanced bed rotting. Robert is absolutely entranced, however. He’s fascinated by the valley’s prosperity, peace, and complete lack of crime. Chang explains that the overarching philosophy is moderation in all things, even moderation itself. Shangri-La was founded by a Catholic priest named Father Perrault in the 1700s. Robert is also taken with Chang’s adopted daughter, Sondra, who teaches the children of the valley. George, meanwhile, is the only one still wearing the clothes he came in, stomping around and demanding to know where the damn porters are. His only respite is a beautiful woman named Maria. Other than that, he’s to the point of threatening Chang when Robert simply punches him in the face. Robert is taken to see the High Lama.
Ellen: Maria has this deep, lovely voice, which means George and I will follow her anywhere, at our peril…
Tyler: Speaking of women we’d follow anywhere to our peril, why is there just a random deer hanging out with Sondra while she’s teaching?! And the pigeon coop she casually walks into later?! With her specific animal tendencies, she is truly a nightmare dressed like a daydream.
The High Lama is quite an old man, but even more so than he appears - over two hundred years old! It’s Father Perrault himself, and the magical properties of the paradise he’s created have preserved him all these years. But even his days are numbered, and he’s in the market for a successor. What he lacks in front teeth, the Lama makes up for in vision! Having read some of Robert’s works, he and Sondra hatched a plan to bring him here to take over the community. Robert is flattered and humbled, but doesn’t immediately buy into the idea that they have to let the world destroy itself while they hole up in Shangri-La.
By Day 24 of Lovett’s count, everybody but George3 is leaning in! Lovett has begun an archeology class, Barnard has devised a plan to bring the valley indoor plumbing, and even Gloria is feeling better and cracked a smile for the first time the whole movie. Robert and Sondra’s relationship deepens, as does George’s paranoia.
Tyler: I feel like you need a token paranoid character in a setup like this, but George was a bit much don’t you think? Robert popping him in the face shouldn’t have been that satisfying to me as the viewer.
The High Lama calls Robert back to him one last time, trusting he’ll take up his mantle of gentle power, and dies peacefully. Robert is basically ready to do it when George waylays him. The younger brother explains that Maria has been trying to break out of Shangri-La, and that the story Chang told them about her arriving in 1888 (despite looking 20) is nonsense. She claims it’s all nonsense! Robert talks to Maria directly, and she tells her tale of failed escapes until she finally gathered enough gold to bribe the porters to come and take them away. She’s crying, desperate to get out. Robert is reluctantly convinced, and after no one else in the party wants to come, the brothers leave with Maria and the porters.
Ellen: Watching this in 2024 makes 1888 seem even less plausible than it did in 1937!
This trek sucks even more than the one that got them there! The weather is terrible, but not as bad as the porters, who continually leave their charges in the dust and shoot at them for fun. One day, however, the shots trigger an avalanche that bury the tribe! Suddenly not so sad to have been left back, the trio powers onward, but it’s difficult work. George ends up carrying Maria. In the shelter of a cave, he sees her face: she’s an old woman!! And also dead. George freaks out and flings himself to his death. Robert continues on as much as he can before collapsing.
Ellen: Okay, so I don’t get what Maria’s deal was here. She makes the point herself that if she’s just going to be a fragile old woman in the real world, why would she lie? But clearly she did! Or she was just deeply confused, but either way, I do not understand her endgame.
Tyler: I believe at one point she explained that she came to Shangri-La as a child, so it’s possible that she doesn’t remember her childhood and thus would not realize it was so long ago. Regardless, I appreciate the movie throwing this in towards the end to make you question everything Robert was told / what you as the viewer might believe.
Ellen: Also, I did not catch that George just yeeted himself off a cliff! I thought he slipped, but it’s two (you and Wikipedia) to one, so maybe I subconsciously wanted better for him.
Tyler: He said Shangri-Later, losers!
Back in Britain, we learn from a conversation between Parliament bigwigs that Robert was found by a group from a Chinese mission, then passed to the search party from Britain. He had no memory of where he’d been… until the long voyage back to the United Kingdom! Before they could get him home, Robert jumped ship in Singapore. Searchers pursued him into the Himalayas, where the villagers now tell tales of a crazy white man attempting to scale an impassable section of mountain.
In the last scene, Robert struggles his way up a cliff and finally gets a glimpse into the valley of Shangri-La.
Intermission
Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”
This installment of ILTBTA is brought to you by … the Shangri-La Tourism Board!
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Wander our exquisite lamasery, read your way through our lavish libraries, and even take in a horse ride through the lush forest as you settle into your new, extended life here at Shangri-La. Almost anything you could possibly want is available at your fingertips. For any items we don’t have, our porters can transport it in just 1-3 business years!
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Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?
Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.
Lost Horizon’s Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few of our favorites:
As we learned in our last post, Lost Horizon is based on the book of the same name by James Hilton. The novel was the origin of the fictional place “Shangri-La,” which has since become synonymous with an isolated, Himalayan utopia. Hilton was inspired by Tibetan material in the British Museum and his own travels to the Hunza Valley near the Pakistan-China border.
The casting of the High Lama is the subject of a Hollywood urban legend that the role was cursed. According to legend, director Frank Capra convinced retired stage actor A.E. Anson to take the part after a screen test. However, when Capra called Anson to tell him he got the part, Anson’s housekeeper (who answered the phone) told Capra that Anson had died of a heart attack after hearing the news. Capra subsequently offered the part to actor Henry B. Walthall, who died shortly before filming began. Finally, Capra cast 45-year-old Sam Jaffe to play it safe. While it makes for a spooky story, camera logs during production indicate Anson never screen-tested to begin with, with a film historian guessing that the story was fabricated to “add drama to Jaffe’s casting.”
Ellen: I’m kind of relieved that Jaffe was only 45, because that version of aging looked pretty unpleasant, 200 years old or not!
Thomas Mitchell (who played Barnard) was the first male actor to win the “Triple Crown of Acting” by winning an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony. He is also known for his roles on screen as Scarlett O’Hara’s father Gerald in Gone with the Wind, Uncle Billy in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, and the mayor in High Noon.
H.B. Warner (who played Chang) also starred in It’s a Wonderful Life, playing the drunken druggist Mr. Gower. An accomplished film and theatre actor, Warner also had cameos in The Ten Commandments and future ILTBTA post Sunset Boulevard, where he played a version of himself playing cards with silent movie stars Buster Keaton and Anna Q. Nilsson.
Last fun casting tidbit: Sonny Bupp (who is hilariously uncredited as “boy being carried to plane” on Wikipedia) also appeared in Citizen Kane as the main character’s son and was the last surviving cast member of the film. Bupp had an impressive 62 credits to his name from 1934-1942.
The film’s final cost was over $2.6 million4 and didn’t turn a profit until it was re-released five years later. The original budget was $1.25 million, then the largest amount ever allocated for a movie. Part of the budget explosion was Capra’s insistence on using multiple cameras in every scene, the cold-weather snow scenes impacting filming equipment, and the long script: the first cut of the film was six hours long and used 1.1 million feet of film.
Lost Horizon was remade into a musical in 1973, starring (amongst others) Michael York and the late Olivia Hussey, our friends from Romeo and Juliet. The film was critically panned at the time of its release, but has since gained a cult following.
Oscar NomNomNomz
Since we all know a movie is nothing without the food and drink it incorporates.
It’s now time to award the Oscar for Best Snacktor in a Supporting Role5. And the nomnomnominees are:
Several shots of unknown liquor on the last plane out
Some mountain grass to gnaw on
A hot beverage and full meal upon your entrance to Shangri-La after a cold and treacherous journey
And the Oscar goes to … the hot beverage and full meal upon your entrance to Shangri-La! Unfortunately, your traveling party is deeply suspicious of the winner and intercepted it on its way up to the stage, so we will accept this award on its behalf.
Fill In The Blank
How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?
Ellen: I’d like to make some slight tweaks to The Academy’s perfect hideaway to give it indoor plumbing. Well, this kept me leaps and bounds more engaged than our last film! I also enjoyed Ronald Colman’s acting much more this time, though considering all he did in Random Harvest was look confused, be rich, and be rich while being confused, it was a low bar to clear. The spectacle and acting, along with the twists and turns of good filmmaking, kept me interested and on my toes. My 2020 self was absolutely convinced the whole thing was a sham, but maybe it was just the untrusting mindset of a bad year, because I did not feel like George gave his suspicions proper weight this time around. I think it might have held more emotional weight for me if Robert had rejected the Lama’s idea of just letting the world tear itself apart and tried instead to make it a better place, but after all he’d seen, I can’t really blame him for hightailing it back to paradise.
Tyler: I’d like to give The Academy a hot meal, some fresh linens, and a new utopian home (if they so choose). While some of the movie’s flaws were more evident upon our second viewing, I still really liked Lost Horizon. Sure some of the shots are a touch too long (making the whole movie drag just a touch towards the end) and the score is oddly absent at times (as I mentioned earlier), but the overall story, acting, and questions it begs you to ask all outweigh any shortcomings. Chang’s discussion about how people’s lives on the outside are comparatively shorter due to “indirect suicide” stuck out to me the first time around and did so again this time. It’s a movie that makes you think (and not in a Tenet kind of way), with some fun twists and bits of humor6 thrown in for good measure.
Let The Credits Roll
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Post-Credits Scene
Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.
We’re kicking off 2025 with what we’re calling jAInuary, in which our posts will focus on movies that feature artificial intelligence in some manner or form. Our hope is that this offering will make Google stop asking us if we want to use Gemini to write our posts for us or summarize our emails, files, or folders because WE DO NOT WANT TO USE GEMINI, GOOGLE. STOP TRYING TO MAKE GEMINI HAPPEN.
Our first offering to the Skynet gods will be a post on The Imitation Game, the 2014 biographical thriller starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the famous cryptanalyst Alan Turing. Turing is considered the father of theoretical computer science and The Imitation Game focuses on his work decrypting German codes during World War II. Feed your favorite tech company’s algorithms by renting The Imitation Game on their streaming service.
Until then, a fond (?) farewell to 2024!!
The 1937 version of “can’t get service on my cell phone and there’s an axe murderer at the cabin!”
Sounds like me! I mean, um, sounds like my ex-wife!
Tyler: Props to my dad (whom we watched this with) for clocking in real time that this is represented by George being the only one still wearing his original clothing.
That’s a little over $58 million in today’s movie budgets (the intended budget was almost $28 million), which would just barely make it “high budget” by today’s standards.
Results tabulated and certified by the accountants at Ernst & Yum™.
At one point, George says “High Lamas or low lamas, I don’t care …” which got me good.