Search results
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.
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.
On 10 March 1935, the pacifist British diplomat and future Foreign Secretary Robert Conway helps a group of ninety Westerns white people to escape from the Chinese city of Baskul after the beginning of a revolution.
Frank Capra classic about a group of British citizens, led by diplomat Robert Conway (Ronald Colman), who flee a rebellion in China only to have their plane crash in the Himalayas. They are taken to Shangri-La, a magical place isolated in the mountains where people can leave behind the worries of civilization.
- (15K)
- Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
- Frank Capra
- 1937-09-01
- 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.)
Britannica Quiz
Famous Hollywood Film Characters Quiz
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
Courageous British diplomat (Foreign Secretary-designate), Far Eastern writer and idealistic dreamer Robert Conway (Ronald Colman) is caught in the burning city of Baskul, in 1935 war-torn China during the Japanese invasion.
People also ask
Who is Hugh Conway in Lost Horizon?
Who was Robert Conway and what did he do?
Why did Robert Conway fly out of China in 1935?
What happened to Conway after he regained his memory?
After a preliminary introduction of the hero, Hugh “Glory” Conway, and an explanation of his presence in Asia, the narrative opens with an account of how Conway and three other European...
