Lost Horizon

Plot synopsis:
It is 1935. Before returning to England to become the new Foreign Secretary, writer, soldier, and diplomat Robert Conway (Ronald Colman) has one last task in China: to rescue 90 white Westerners in the city of Baskul. He flies out with the last few evacuees, just ahead of armed revolutionaries.
Unbeknownst to the passengers, the pilot has been replaced and their aircraft hijacked. It eventually runs out of fuel and crashes deep in the Himalayan Mountains, killing their abductor. The group is rescued by Chang (H.B. Warner) and his men and taken to Shangri-La, an idyllic valley sheltered from the bitter cold. The contented inhabitants are led by the mysterious High Lama (Sam Jaffe).
Initially anxious to return to civilization, most of the newcomers grow to love Shangri-La, including paleontologist Alexander Lovett (Edward Everett Horton), swindler Henry Barnard (Thomas Mitchell), and bitter, terminally-ill Gloria Stone (Isabel Jewell), who miraculously seems to be recovering. Conway is particularly enchanted, especially when he meets Sondra (Jane Wyatt), who has grown up in Shangri-La. However, Conway's younger brother George (John Howard), and Maria (Margo), another beautiful young woman they find there, are determined to leave.
Conway eventually has an audience with the High Lama and learns that his arrival was no accident. The founder of Shangri-La is said to be hundreds of years old, preserved, like the other residents, by the magical properties of the paradise he has created, but is finally dying and needs someone wise and knowledgeable in the ways of the modern world to keep it safe. Having read Conway's writings, Sondra believed he was the one; the Lama had agreed with her and arranged for Conway's abduction. The old man names Conway as his successor and then peacefully passes away.
George refuses to believe the Lama's fantastic story and is supported by Maria. Uncertain and torn between love and loyalty, Conway reluctantly gives in to his brother and they leave, taking Maria with them, despite being warned that she is much older than she appears. After several days of grueling travel, she becomes exhausted and falls face down in the snow. When they turn Maria over, they discover that she had become extremely old and died, as her departure from Shangri-La had restored her to her true age. Horrified, George loses his sanity and jumps to his death. The Sherpa porters accompanying them were earlier swept away by an avalanche, triggered by one of them who carelessly fires a handgun.
Conway continues on and eventually meets up with a search party sent to find him, although the ordeal has caused him to lose his memory of Shangri-La. On the voyage back to England, he remembers everything; he tells his story and then jumps ship. The searchers track him back to the Himalayas, but are unable to follow him any further. Conway manages to return to Shangri-La.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Mr. Van took his role of Harry Lovett just after closing a 2 year Tony nominated (for best actor) run of the Broadway revival, "No, No, Nanette." He is a song-and-dance-man from way back and, honestly, the only one in the cast that was truly talented and experienced for musicals.
Other pleasant numbers are done by Olivia Hussey when she welcomes the new visitors and while the lyrics are weak, James Shigeta shows his strong voice in the "Family" song, as well as a nicely done staging of the full piece.View the film for what it is ...
Much better than it is generally given credit for, this version of "Lost Horizon" not only had great music and beautiful scenery, but also some stunning mountain photography.
Certainly the roles could have been given to people who could sing better than Peter Finch, Liv Ullman, George Kennedy and Sally Kellerman, but what do you want in a movie, good acting or melodious pipes?
Song and dance man Bobby Van is great fun, Michael York is a suitably tragic villain, and seeing Sir John Gielgud decked out as Chang may sound silly but actually works very well on screen.
LOST HORIZON certainly does not fit that last description because while CITIZEN KANE it is not, it certainly does not deserve to be trashed.By the time LOST HORIZON came along, the movie musical was already considered a dead genre, save for the occasional import from Broadway that actually turned out well (OLIVER!
Hunter may have succeeded in bringing back old-fashioned soap operas with the Douglas Sirk movies, but as THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE showed with its original songs that paled in comparison to the classics it stood alongside (well, almost), the musical was perhaps not a genre in need of a revival.You certainly could have fooled Hunter, who went full-steam ahead with his musicalization of a property that should have been left alone to begin with.
Supposedly the film led to the break-up of their previously infallible partnership, as well as Hunter's film career (he mostly worked for TV afterwards).Apparently, Hollywood likes to keep its megaflops very secret because LOST HORIZON has not been seen much since its theatrical debut, and has not even made it onto VHS, let alone DVD in the U.S.
But if even Ed Wood's hilariously bad movies can be released & enjoyed by people even for all the wrong reasons, then certainly LOST HORIZON can.
Here is a film which attempts to inspire and uplift, and I guess it succeeds, if for reasons quite different from those intended.Unless they attempt a musical version of "Schindler's List" this will probably be the all time champion in the "Play it straight" stakes.
Peter Finch is the international peace keeper who becomes involved in a somewhat constipated romance with resident Liv Ullmann; Sally Kellerman is a malcontent photographer who spits out lines like, "I got tired of taking pictures of people with their heads blown off, so that people with their heads STILL ON--and usually under hairdryers--could get one last kick before turning to the nearest recipe"; John Gieguld, "as Chang", is curiously cast as an Asian factotum for the High Lama who learned to speak English while attending Oxford (but why no songs for Chang?); while Bobby Van, as a USO entertainer, soft-shoes his way into the hearts of the Shangri-La schoolchildren.
There are two groups of people in the world: those who love this 1973 remake of "Lost Horizon" and those who are lucky to escape with their lives if caught in a theater with a majority from the first group.
Burt Bacharach and Hal David are talented songwriters and I happen to love their songs, especially "The World Is A Circle", "The Things That I Will Not Miss", and "Question Me An Answer".
Comparisons with the 1937 Ronald Colman classic aside, this Bacharach-David musical starts as an adventure story and only moves into song and dance fantasy about 45 minutes into the film, when the mixed bag of plane crash survivors (Peter Finch, Michael York, Sally Kellerman, George Kennedy, Bobby Van) discover Shangri-La, led by Oxford graduate Chang (John Gielgud) and the High Lama (Charles Boyer).So the cast looks strong - and in Shangri-La is boosted by wimpy Olivia Hussey and pouty Liv Ullmann.
The cast, is made-up of mostly non-musical talents (Ullman, Finch and Hussey, were all dubbed, and still don't sound all that great).Frankly, the novella, on which this, and the earlier non-musical film versions were based, is mediocre, at best.
As for all the reviewers who claimed the cast cannot sing in tune, this criticism falls apart since Liv Ullmann, Olivia Hussey and Peter Finch were dubbed (brilliantly too, as the vocals match their speaking voices perfectly), and Sally Kellerman has a really lovely and totally unique singing style.
I wouldn't claim for a second that Lost Horizon is a masterpiece (The things I wouldn't miss about it are the uninspired choreography, and Bobby Van's "Question Me An Answer" number, which could easily have been cut), but if you haven't ever seen Lost Horizon, or haven't seen it for some time, try watching without that "Oh boy, let's have a laugh at this pile of junk" attitude, and you will be surprised at how enjoyable it actually is..
A lot of people who are fans of musicals- especially classics like "Singin in the Rain" and "My Fair Lady"- disdain this musical version of "Lost Horizon" because it is an anti-musical.
The musical remake of "Lost Horizon" is truly one of the worst films ever made.
(I think Chips got crucified mainly because it just happened to be an old fashioned musical in a time that was thriving on being "Mod.") Lost Horizon, on the other hand, had no redeeming features(except for Surtees) and was just terrible.Producer Ross Hunter gets the blame for this dreadful mess, but lest we forget, he was also the guiding force for the wonderfully entertaining Throughly Modern Millie.
Unable to avert my eyes, I watched, fascinated, in the same way one watches a train wreck.This was "Lost Horizon", a mid 70's stinker that deserves a place among the top flops of all time, and could replace 'Plan Nine from Outer Space' as the worst movie ever made.
It stars Peter Finch [sic!], John Gielgud (must have been desperate for work at the time), George Kennedy, Sally Kellerman, Liv Ullman , Michael York and Charles Boyer (his last - understandably - film).
The bottom line is that because of these insane casting choices, the film was doomed from the start....and the worst of them was the god-awful Bobby Van. Now in real life, he might have been a lovely person and it's sad that in real life he died so young, but with the material they gave him here I just wanted to rip out his tongue to get him to be quiet.Now I also mentioned the songs--egad, those terrible songs!!
The original LOST HORIZON by Frank Capra was a subtle delight throughout--and not a single song and dance number in the film.
Bear in mind that most of the actors also have no or little previous musical experience (Liv Ullmann was even dubbed in the movie), and one can understand why the numbers just fall flat.
What is surprising is that Michael York and Olivia Hussey are the only ones who want to leave.For the benefit (?) of anyone who has not seen this abomination, try to envision the talentless Bobby Van dancing in front of a class of Shangri-la schoolchildren, singing "Question me an Answer." Lerner and Lowe, in their worst moments, never descended to such depths.
For some reason the songs felt like they were meant for a different film.The cast is okay but this is a musical.
It was certainly one of the more memorable films from my childhood, very colourful, and some of the songs were great (of course I had no idea at the time they were from the legendary Bacharach and David, who are far too harsh on them).
James Shigeta who did do the film version of Flower Drum Song, Sally Kellerman and Bobby Van who actually was a musical performer did their own work.Lost Horrizon also is a story set during the time when the British actually had an empire.
Why not cast Glenn Close?But back to "Lost Horizon," I think the other problem is by the time this was released in 1972, the music and presentation were considered dated or "old school." Similar complaints were leveled at Hunters 1970 film "Airport"--calling it "old fashioned filmmaking."So, you've got three things working against the film: a dull plot, dated music, and principal vocalists who can't sing.
It features static direction by Charles Jarrot and some really awful Burt Bacherach/Hal David songs like "The World is a Circle", "Share the Joy", "The Things I Will Not Miss", and "Reflections".
Maybe Stephan Sondheim could have restored some grit to the story,  playing up the very real conflict inside each character's reaction; just five years afterwards, Brian Eno would have captured the tranquil atmosphere to a T; instead, Bert Bacherach and Hal David were given the job of writing the songs, which marry Muzak-like melodies with some of the clunkiest New Agey lyrics ever penned.
Quite naturally for the time, every song calls for a dance number,  which range from the merely forgettable to the completely boring, and so is the script, which has not one line worth quoting.Tie-ins with this movie were legion -- there were everything from cookbooks to posters planned to promote this film, and such was the hype that I actually went out and bought the sountrack album.
This latest version of "Lost Horizon", a musical remake of the 30's fantasy about a group of people who find Shangri-La after their plane crashes, was a big, fat, juicy, and notorious flop when originally released in 1973, and has often been cited in numerous articles and books about Hollywood's celluloid mistakes.
(It's said that, at the time, Hollywood's nickname for it was "Lost Investments".) Having finally seen it a few years back, thanks to the cable channel AMC (this was before they started adding commercials), I have to admit - and I am a huge, HUGE fan of bad movies!
Oh, sure, it's overlong and overproduced (typical of Ross Hunter productions) and some of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David songs are indeed cringe-worthy ("Living Together, Growing Together" and "The World Is A Circle", at least as they are presented here; perhaps with a different arrangement and better direction and choreography they could work) and the acting often a bit overbaked, but there ARE some positive qualities to be found: some of the cast display admirable - albeit definitely untrained - singing voices, in particular Liv Ullmann and Olivia Hussey (Sally Kellerman's is actually interesting); the cinematography and costumes are spectacular (again, typical of Ross Hunter productions); some of the music is actually pretty decent, though it sure ain't Bacharach & David's finest hour by any stretch of the imagination: while their undeniable stamp is in every note, the lyrics have that unmistakable feeling of treacly, heavy-handed 70's "self-help" running throughout.
This version of "The Lost Horizon" is actually not a bad film at all.
1973's color musical adds a GREAT DIMENSION to Hilton's utopian work (even though Michael York was the pits!).The original "Lost Horizon" is in my personal collection, and the 1973 issue also belongs in my top 10 list, along with "Gone With The Wind", "Coming Home", "S.T.: The Wrath of Khan", "Day The Earth Stood Still", "Sound of Music", "Soylent Green", "Dirty Dancing", "Shirley Valentine" and "What About Bob"..
Back in late 1971, when I was a green kid in the U.S. Army, I read in a newspaper that Ross Hunter was remaking "Lost Horizon." I loved the James Hilton novel, but I wasn't crazy about the 1937 movie because it seemed so "Hollywood." I hoped the new version would be more true to the book, and I had an idea about how to do that.I wrote a letter to Hunter suggesting that he make the movie in northern India, where there were real Himalayas and a lot of Tibetan refugees.
Those refugees didn't get much attention back then, so the idea seemed like a way to kill two birds with one stone: helping unfortunate people and making a movie more authentic.To my shock, Hunter wrote back, thanking me for my military service and my suggestion, but telling me that he was "very much against runaway productions." (Though I lost the letter years ago, I still remember that phrase.) I was disappointed, but I respected the famous producer for sticking by his guns.
And I'm not sure if I'm recalling this correctly, but I seem to remember that actually NOBODY was dubbed, though they all definitely should've been, even Bobby Van!!The most striking thing about the whole mess was the lavish song and movie score provided by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
This version of Lost Horizon pretty much finished the job Rex Harrison's Doctor Doolittle began: that of burying the Movie Musical for years.
But who thought to have George Kennedy and Peter Finch as "singers?" Burt Bacharach's score is actually pretty good (though it's clearly not his best work, Bacharach on a bad day is still worthy of a listen), and the film has some cute moments (mostly provided by the children of this paradise along with Bobby Van who mugs his way through the bulk of his material), but they are outnumbered by the stilted ones...
However, 32 years on it really looks like a 'final days of the musical' last ditch effort that fails to work on almost every level.If you have a few friends who love bad films, get them together and treat them to parts of this one, they'll love you for it..
I loved the original version Of Lost Horizon , so I remember being very excited when I heard they were doing a remake with one of my favorite actresses of the time , Olivia Hussey , from Romeo and Juliet.
Plus, I find it odd to see Burt Bacharach doing movie musicals when his trademark was always sappy love songs.Don't get me wrong - I love movie musicals - especially good ones like West Side Story, the Music Man, Brigadoon, etc - but Lost Horizon as a musical just totally blows.If you want to see a version of Lost Horizon that captures the wonder of Shan-gri-la and is true to Hilton's work then I suggest you catch the 1930's B&W version with Ronald Coleman - you'll be glad you did..
The on board cinema was just like the real thing and I watched Lost Horizon at least two or three times during the voyage.
The film starts off as action adventure and suddenly changes into a very strange kind of musical, with a score which was very 1973, just like some of the god-awful clothes worn by Michael York and Bobby (please don't dance) Van.The main Shangri-La set looks like a 1970's Burbank Hilton Resort and the obvious studio set interiors are very much over lit.
Believe it or not there's a LOT to like about 'Lost Horizon,' further Bert Bacharach and his collaborative partner Hal David never produced a single, bad piece of music.
On board are song and dance man Bobby Van (as Harry Lovett), uptight photographer Sally Kellerman (as Sally Hughes) and gold prospector George Kennedy (as Sam Cornelius)...Mr. Finch is attracted to singing schoolteacher Liv Ullmann (as Catherine) while Mr. York prefers pregnant dancer Olivia Hussey (as Maria)...Wise old Dalai lamas John Gielgud and Charles Boyer are befriended by Finch.
I was about 14 years old as I saw the musical version of Lost Horizon.
We had the album with all of the wonderful Bacharach/David music and knew all of the songs before seeing the film.
A child would be instantly bored watching this, although the "The world is a circle" song is so bad, one just has to laugh.How high caliber actors like John Gielgud, Liv Ullman and Peter Finch ever ended up in this bomb is amazing.Watch for the yuks!.
Did he actually believe he could turn this classic tale into a musical?This film must be watched, if for no other reason than to see Sally Kellerman and Olivia Hussey "dance" and "sing" in the local branch of the Shangri-La library to an insipid Burt Bacharach tune.
Okay, I admit it, this musical Lost Horizon is not a good movie.
No wonder Hal David and Burt Bacharach ended their songwriting partnership after these creations.Truthfully, the songs are so bad they are funny especially The World Is A Circle which seems to be going for a Sound Of Music effect.
As a story, LOST HORIZON is an incredible adventure and both the 1937 Frank Capra film and this 1973 musical are faithful adaptations of the James Hilton novel.
This musical version basically takes the Capra film, populates it with actors who can't sing, adds color and bad 1970's hairstyles, and introduces the most mediocre songs imaginable.
What I do know is, Lost Horizon (the musical) needs to be seen to be believed, and that's the only reason I can think of to see it.Load up on caffeine first -- it'll help you not to nod off as this film bores you to death -- and it'll give you a good excuse to spend time in the bathroom which means you won't have to watch as much of the movie..
Time has been kind to the musical of "Lost Horizon", and as the world heads into different styles of wars and disasters, perhaps the longing for what this movie expresses isn't such bad wishful thinking..