Frank Capra
Orizzonte Perduto

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This is Frank Capra's tenth film.

I'll do 2 half reviews:

First Review

In China, invaded by Japan, five Americans (the writer Conway, his brother George, a paleontologist, a bankrupted man, and a tubercular American woman) attempt to escape aboard a plane that crashes on the Himalayan peaks, where they find the enchanted kingdom of Shangri-La, a place where peace and wisdom reign, and people inexplicably remain young. Despite the generous offers of the Great Lama, the two brothers decide to leave the enchanted valley; but only one will survive the escape, and, despairing, will return to the valley.

An eulogy (in Capra's manner, of course!) of Utopia, of the Quest (a theme dear to Anglo-Saxon medievalists) but in a secular sauce: dominion of pessimism (an unusual thing for the author) that reflects the anxieties of the American generation "spared" from the First World War (alas, we are in '37, a year full of events and a prologue to the Second); the narrative choice is surprising (the critics panned the film) so far from the comedic tones that Capra knows how to use masterfully, benefiting from Robert Riskin's fine screenplay (which reworked James Hilton's masterpiece from which the film is derived). Recently restored (thanks to the commendable work of the AFI) with the addition of the original soundtrack and seven minutes of "amputated" scenes, Lost Horizon won two Oscars: Best Art Direction (Gooson) and Best Editing (the great Gene Havlick) but it certainly is not Capra's best film, who in this endeavor seems "unmotivated" in front of a subject, that despite the excellent work of reduction, does not stand up to the viewing test. A musical remake (sic!) starring Peter Finch and Liv Ullmann is remembered in 1972.

Second Review

The story brings to the screen the eponymous novel by James Hilton. At the end of the thirties, the war between China and Japan is blooding Asia: five people - the soldier and writer Robert Conway (Ronald Colman) with his brother George (John Howard), a captivating woman severely ill with tuberculosis (Isabel Jewell), a paleontology scholar (Edward Everett Horton, a well-known face from musical comedies with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) and a businessman in legal troubles (Thomas Mitchell) - flee from China, stirred by revolutionary ferment. The group will not travel far, however, because the plane they are on, piloted by a mysterious Mongolian, will end among the Himalayan mountains. Here, far from the horrors of war, the five discover a sort of paradise: a community where well-being and peace reign, where people mysteriously do not age. It is Shangri-La, the realm of moderation, protected by a chain of snowy mountains, an oasis where violence and crime do not exist, founded two centuries earlier by a Belgian priest. Is it worth staying in that enchanted world for a lifetime, or return home? And, above all, did the group end up there by chance, or is there a higher purpose? When Robert decides to accompany his brother George in returning home, the undertaking of reaching the civilized world will not be easy. One of Capra's few not perfectly optimistic films, Lost Horizon gained favor over time, thanks to the indisputable utopian momentum of the subject.

'Lost Horizon' may appear at first glance to be a bombastic, slow, and at times affected film, foreign to the director's poetic vein. Much of the reservations raised about the film rest on the comparison with the more spontaneous and dramatically articulated comedies centered on the dualism between humble and powerful, to which Capra's fame is predominantly tied. Lacking a true protagonist in which the average viewer can see and identify themselves, the film finds its true meaning in the sincere inspiration it pours into the depiction of the utopian society, where innocence and peace are regained.

What can I say.. it's a pity he's gone.