Director: Frank Capra
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Top Billed Actors: Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, Edward Everett Horton
Won 2 Oscars:
Best Art Direction - Stephen Goosson
Best Film Editing - Gene Havlik and Gene Milford
Nominated for 5 more:
Outstanding Production - Columbia
Best Supporting Actor - H.B. Warner
Best Scoring - Columbia Studio Music Department
Best Sound Recording - John P. Livadary
Best Assistant Director - C.C. Coleman Jr.
Plot: A man saves ninety white people but on his return trip, he crashes in the Himalayas, finds a magical Utopia, becomes its leader, escapes, then returns via someone else's monologue over a scotch and soda.
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Top Billed Actors: Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, Edward Everett Horton
Won 2 Oscars:
Best Art Direction - Stephen Goosson
Best Film Editing - Gene Havlik and Gene Milford
Nominated for 5 more:
Outstanding Production - Columbia
Best Supporting Actor - H.B. Warner
Best Scoring - Columbia Studio Music Department
Best Sound Recording - John P. Livadary
Best Assistant Director - C.C. Coleman Jr.
Plot: A man saves ninety white people but on his return trip, he crashes in the Himalayas, finds a magical Utopia, becomes its leader, escapes, then returns via someone else's monologue over a scotch and soda.
Frank Capra was on a role in the mid-1930s. Lost Horizon (1937) is his fourth Best Picture nominee in five years and he would go on to direct the Best Picture winner the following year. Its easy to see why Columbia had all the faith in the world in the director so they provided him a huge budget for this particular film. When it was all said and done, the budget was exceeded by almost double and Capra is said to have hurt his relationship with the studio as well as his screenwriting collaborator, Robert Riskin. A big reason for the high production cost is Capra's extravagant approach with shooting the picture. He used multiple cameras for every scene as well as many takes. The amount of physical film used had to be extremely expensive. Relating to all of this footage, Capra's first cut of the film was six hours long. The final cut ended up at 132 minutes, but he did premiere it with a much longer edit. In all, it took until the 1942 reissue to recoup its cost so its critical accolades exceeded its financial performance by far.
One way to measure its critical success is the Oscars the film garnered. The one that stands out is Best Art Direction. The set design is simply breathtaking, with its Streamline Moderne architecture and mountainous terrain. Shrangi-La's buildings look just as good in the interiors as they do the exteriors. The physical embodiment of a Utopia is definitively achieved through Stephen Gossoon's designs and one can see why this film cost so much. Lavish, extravagant, and immersive are all descriptors that accompany these sets. What also accompanies these sets is Ronald Colman's screen presence. His character is endlessly enjoyable to watch as he attempts to figure out where he is and why he is there. There is some self-reflection that goes along with the mysteries of the location as well. It reminds me of one of my favorite television series, one that has a similar name - Lost. Both of these projects include plane crashes into mysterious locales that enable the main characters to discover themselves.
The other Oscar the film won was Best Film Editing. This one is a bit odd to me as the movie feels a bit overly long. Not only that, but the concluding events all happen via a voice-over and some quick cuts of Bob (Colman) traversing the mountain. There was some clever use of documentary footage to use in place of actors scaling a mountain as well as the major cuts to the theatrical version (Capra is said to have completely ditched his first two reels) so perhaps the Film Editing Oscar makes sense, but the editing doesn't stand out to me. What does stand out is a couple of over-the-top performances. John Howard, who plays Bob's brother, is the biggest culprit. I don't like Isabel Jewell's screams either, but Howard's over-dramatic exclamations take the cake for bad acting. His skepticism is welcome in such a peculiar place, but the acting chops just aren't there.
Overall, the exciting opening paves the way for exciting architecture and exciting landscapes. Ronald Colman doesn't disappoint and the self-discoveries of his and the supporting characters is rewarding. A few slower scenes makes the already long run time feel a bit longer and the other performances don't exactly match Colman.
My Score: 7/10
One way to measure its critical success is the Oscars the film garnered. The one that stands out is Best Art Direction. The set design is simply breathtaking, with its Streamline Moderne architecture and mountainous terrain. Shrangi-La's buildings look just as good in the interiors as they do the exteriors. The physical embodiment of a Utopia is definitively achieved through Stephen Gossoon's designs and one can see why this film cost so much. Lavish, extravagant, and immersive are all descriptors that accompany these sets. What also accompanies these sets is Ronald Colman's screen presence. His character is endlessly enjoyable to watch as he attempts to figure out where he is and why he is there. There is some self-reflection that goes along with the mysteries of the location as well. It reminds me of one of my favorite television series, one that has a similar name - Lost. Both of these projects include plane crashes into mysterious locales that enable the main characters to discover themselves.
The other Oscar the film won was Best Film Editing. This one is a bit odd to me as the movie feels a bit overly long. Not only that, but the concluding events all happen via a voice-over and some quick cuts of Bob (Colman) traversing the mountain. There was some clever use of documentary footage to use in place of actors scaling a mountain as well as the major cuts to the theatrical version (Capra is said to have completely ditched his first two reels) so perhaps the Film Editing Oscar makes sense, but the editing doesn't stand out to me. What does stand out is a couple of over-the-top performances. John Howard, who plays Bob's brother, is the biggest culprit. I don't like Isabel Jewell's screams either, but Howard's over-dramatic exclamations take the cake for bad acting. His skepticism is welcome in such a peculiar place, but the acting chops just aren't there.
Overall, the exciting opening paves the way for exciting architecture and exciting landscapes. Ronald Colman doesn't disappoint and the self-discoveries of his and the supporting characters is rewarding. A few slower scenes makes the already long run time feel a bit longer and the other performances don't exactly match Colman.
My Score: 7/10