Lost Horizon

While escaping war-torn China, a group of Europeans crash in the Himalayas, where they are rescued and taken to the mysterious Valley of the Blue Moon, Shangri-La. Hidden from the rest of the world, Shangri-La is a haven of peace and tranquility for world-weary diplomat Richard Conway. His ambitious brother, George, sees it as a prison from which he must escape, even if it means risking his life and bringing destruction to the ancient culture of Shangri-La.

STARS: Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann, Sally Kellerman

150 min | Drama, Adventure, Fantasy | 1973 | Color

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Often deliriously enjoyable
To review Ross Hunter's musical remake of Frank Capra's 1937 adventure "Lost Horizon", based on James Hilton's novel, means to partially review the film's chequered history. By 1973, old-fashioned movie musicals were passé and being ridiculed by critics who were seemingly in competition for the best insult, trying to top each other with 'clever' catch-phrases such as "Least Horizon". Had the film been an enormous financial success for Columbia Pictures, it would have silenced some of the naysayers--and possibly brought out a few blushing admirers from the woodwork. After a disparate group of Brits and Americans escape a war-torn Asian country in a rickety DC-3, they find themselves hijacked and heading in the opposite direction from destination Hong Kong. The reason is obvious, as stated by one of the passengers: international peacekeeper Richard Conway (Peter Finch) is aboard, and his global mission for the UN to unite heads of state is controversial stuff. Also on the plane are Conway's journalist brother (Michael York), a pill-popping photojournalist for Newsweek (Sally Kellerman), an engineer (George Kennedy) and a USO entertainer (Bobby Van). Their plane crashes in an unexplored region of the Himalayas, killing the pilot but leaving the rest unscathed (a point of derision held by critics). The survivors hold out little hope for a rescue, but indeed are found in the blizzard by an expedition party lead by Chang (John Gielgud), the factotum to the High Lama of Shangri-La, a nearby lamasery sheltered by mountains on all sides. The first of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David songs ("Share the Joy") is introduced into the narrative casually, as after-dinner entertainment, but when schoolteacher Liv Ullmann suddenly bursts into song while teaching her class, moviegoers at the time were put off. For the film to work, one must have an appreciation for this type of cinema, which eschews the conventions of ordinary drama by weaving in singing and dancing. Yes, it could certainly be viewed as treacle, although the gleaming production and beautiful music scoring are captivating, and the picture is seldom boring (only when Finch's Conway meets Charles Boyer's High Lama does Larry Kramer's screenplay get too preachy). A lashing-back to the "Lost Horizon" backlash began gathering steam about 10 years ago, and the picture now has a loyal following.