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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.
- Overview
- Production notes and credits
- Cast
- Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)
Lost Horizon, American fantasy film, released in 1937, that was directed by Frank Capra and based on James Hilton’s 1933 novel of the same name. The fictional land of Shangri-La, where the film is set, became a common reference for an earthly paradise.
(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)
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Ronald Colman played Robert Conway, a British diplomat who, along with a group of eclectic fellow passengers, is on an airplane that is highjacked. After crashing in a remote Tibetan area near a lamasery called Shangri-La, the travelers discover that they have landed in an actual paradise, where there is no war or crime and where people live for hundreds of years. While most of the passengers have no desire to leave, Robert’s brother, George, is desperate to return to England with Maria, one of Shangri-La’s residents. George eventually persuades Robert to depart, and the three head back to civilization. Tragedy results, however, as Maria returns to her actual age and dies, which causes George to jump off a cliff. Robert ultimately returns to Shangri-La.
Until Lost Horizon, Columbia Pictures was regarded as a “Poverty Row” studio, best known for its B-films. With the success of the film, however, Columbia gained parity with the other studios in terms of industry respect. Lost Horizon’s stunning sets and cinematography produced some of the most haunting images in film history. The movie was severely cut after its first preview. The painstaking restoration of the original version began in 1973 and was completed for the 1998 DVD, though some sequences had to be re-created with still photos. The version of the film released during World War II was called The Lost Horizon of Shangri-La and was amended to include anti-Japanese propaganda.
•Studio: Columbia Pictures
•Director and producer: Frank Capra
•Writer: Robert Riskin
•Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
•Ronald Colman (Robert Conway)
•Jane Wyatt (Sondra)
•Edward Everett Horton (Lovett)
•John Howard (George Conway)
•Thomas Mitchell (Henry Barnard)
•Margo (Maria)
•Picture
•Editing*
•Art direction*
•Score
•Assistant director
•Sound
- Lee Pfeiffer
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.
Lost Horizon: Directed by Frank Capra. With Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, Edward Everett Horton, John Howard. 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.
- (15K)
- Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
- Frank Capra
- 1937-09-01
Oct 19, 2024 · Lost Horizon, made in the bitter depths of the Depression and under the looming shadows of the coming Second World War, was Capra’s desperate plea for peace and hope amidst the darkness. He made...
'Lost Horizon' is a dramatic adventure film made in 1937, directed by Frank Capra and starring Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, H. B. Warner, Thomas Mitchell and Sam Jaffe. The story is based on the hugely successful 1933 novel of the same name by English author, James Hilton, which was based on the life and death of real-life mountaineer George ...
Lost Horizon (1937) is a timeless, widely-acclaimed classic - a romantic fantasy and science-fiction adventure film, produced and directed by Frank Capra for Columbia Pictures. The film was faithfully adapted by screenwriter Robert Riskin from James Hilton's best-selling 1933 novel of the same name. The story was inspired by real-life ...
