“Lost Horizon” is a fantasy adventure drama based on the book by James Hilton and Directed by Frank Capra.
World
weary British diplomat Robert Conway (Ronald Colman) and a small group of civilians
crash land their plane in the Himalayas, and are rescued by the people of the
mysterious, Eden-like valley of Shangri-la, a place of eternal youth, natural
beauty, and free from strife, where the lush green valley is protected by the
mountains that surround it from the harshness of the weather and the wider
world outside, where the clouds of World War II are gathering.
They
are greeted by Chang (H.B. Warner) and are treated as guests, and Robert also meets
another resident, Sondra (Jane Wyatt) who he grows close to, but one day Conway
is invited to meet the spiritual leader the High Lama (Sam Jaffe) and
enlightened as to the truth about the valley which affects him profoundly.
Conway
wants to stay and feels that he is meant to be there, but some of the group,
including his brother George (John Howard), want to leave and find their way
back to the world as they know it, but porters to guide them are hard to find.
So
will Robert be drawn by duty and family ties to help his brother or follow his
heart and stay with Sonja in Shangri-La.
There
is something special about classic films made before the days of computer-generated
visual effects, a time when movies depended on great stories, great
performances and great direction to make a memorable film, and that is
definitely the case with “Lost Horizon”.
