Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV News
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsABFFPride MonthOutfest OutfrontsSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Lost Horizon

  • 1937
  • Approved
  • 2h 12m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
14K
YOUR RATING
Ronald Colman in Lost Horizon (1937)
Official Trailer
Play trailer1:59
1 Video
68 Photos
AdventureDramaFantasy

When a revered diplomat's plane is diverted and crashes in the peaks of Tibet, he and the other survivors are guided to an isolated monastery at Shangri-La, where they wrestle with the invit... Read allWhen a revered diplomat's plane is diverted and crashes in the peaks of Tibet, he and the other survivors are guided to an isolated monastery at Shangri-La, where they wrestle with the invitation to stay.When a revered diplomat's plane is diverted and crashes in the peaks of Tibet, he and the other survivors are guided to an isolated monastery at Shangri-La, where they wrestle with the invitation to stay.

  • Director
    • Frank Capra
  • Writers
    • Robert Riskin
    • James Hilton
    • Sidney Buchman
  • Stars
    • Ronald Colman
    • Jane Wyatt
    • Edward Everett Horton
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.6/10
    14K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Frank Capra
    • Writers
      • Robert Riskin
      • James Hilton
      • Sidney Buchman
    • Stars
      • Ronald Colman
      • Jane Wyatt
      • Edward Everett Horton
    • 149User reviews
    • 40Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 2 Oscars
      • 3 wins & 6 nominations total

    Videos1

    Lost Horizon
    Trailer 1:59
    Watch Lost Horizon

    Photos68

    Lost Horizon (1937)
    Ronald Colman and Jane Wyatt in Lost Horizon (1937)
    Edward Everett Horton, Ronald Colman, John Howard, Isabel Jewell, and Thomas Mitchell in Lost Horizon (1937)
    Ronald Colman and H.B. Warner in Lost Horizon (1937)
    Lost Horizon (1937)
    Ronald Colman and Jane Wyatt in Lost Horizon (1937)
    Edward Everett Horton, Ronald Colman, Isabel Jewell, Thomas Mitchell, and H.B. Warner in Lost Horizon (1937)
    Edward Everett Horton, Ronald Colman, John Howard, Isabel Jewell, Richard Master, and Thomas Mitchell in Lost Horizon (1937)
    Ronald Colman in Lost Horizon (1937)
    Ronald Colman and Val Duran in Lost Horizon (1937)
    Ronald Colman, Val Duran, and John Howard in Lost Horizon (1937)
    Ronald Colman and Jane Wyatt in Lost Horizon (1937)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Ronald Colman
    Ronald Colman
    • Robert Conway
    Jane Wyatt
    Jane Wyatt
    • Sondra
    Edward Everett Horton
    Edward Everett Horton
    • Lovett
    John Howard
    John Howard
    • George Conway
    Thomas Mitchell
    Thomas Mitchell
    • Barnard
    Margo
    Margo
    • Maria
    Isabel Jewell
    Isabel Jewell
    • Gloria
    H.B. Warner
    H.B. Warner
    • Chang
    Sam Jaffe
    Sam Jaffe
    • High Lama
    Norman Ainsley
    • Embassy Club Steward
    • (uncredited)
    Chief John Big Tree
    Chief John Big Tree
    • Porter
    • (uncredited)
    Wyrley Birch
    Wyrley Birch
    • Missionary
    • (uncredited)
    Beatrice Blinn
    Beatrice Blinn
    • Passenger
    • (uncredited)
    Hugh Buckler
    • Lord Gainsford
    • (uncredited)
    Sonny Bupp
    Sonny Bupp
    • Boy Being Carried to Plane
    • (unconfirmed)
    • (uncredited)
    John Burton
    • Wynant
    • (uncredited)
    Tom Campbell
    • Porter
    • (uncredited)
    Matthew Carlton
    • Pottery Maker
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Frank Capra
    • Writers
      • Robert Riskin
      • James Hilton
      • Sidney Buchman(uncredited)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
    7.8
    Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
    You Can't Take It with You
    7.8
    You Can't Take It with You
    Meet John Doe
    7.6
    Meet John Doe
    The Prisoner of Zenda
    7.6
    The Prisoner of Zenda
    Lost Horizon
    5.2
    Lost Horizon
    The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
    7.8
    The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
    Lady for a Day
    7.4
    Lady for a Day
    Here Comes Mr. Jordan
    7.6
    Here Comes Mr. Jordan
    Captain Blood
    7.7
    Captain Blood
    Jezebel
    7.4
    Jezebel
    State of the Union
    7.2
    State of the Union
    Random Harvest
    7.9
    Random Harvest

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The year after this film was released the owner of a prosperous theater chain hired an architect who designed a mansion that was inspired by the Shangri-La lamasery in this film. Located in Denver, Colorado, it still exists today.
    • Goofs
      Echoing the words of the critic, James Agate: 'The best film I've seen for ages, but will somebody please tell me how they got the grand piano along a footpath on which only one person can walk at a time with rope and pickaxe and with a sheer drop of three thousand feet or so?'
    • Quotes

      Chang: Age is a limit we impose upon ourselves. You know, each time you Westerners celebrate your birthday, you build another fence around your minds.

    • Crazy credits
      Bob Gitt of the UCLA Film & Television Archives claims the original opening sequence in 1937 had title cards "Conway has been sent to evacuate ninety white people before they're butchered in a local revolution" was changed in 1942 for a special reissue during WWII. The title cards read "before innocent Chinese people were butchered by Japanese hordes." This was to bolster propaganda against the Japanese.
    • Alternate versions
      Some of the music in the restored version is dubbed into different sections than the ones in the 118 minute cut version. For example, the moment in which Robert Conway ('Ronald Colman') discovers that the High Lama is really Father Perrault i accompanied by soft music in the cut version, while in the restored version this moment is played with no music.
    • Connections
      Edited from Storm Over Mont Blanc (1930)
    • Soundtracks
      Wiegenlied (Brahms' Lullaby), Op. 49, No. 4
      (1868) (uncredited)

      Music and Lyrics by Johannes Brahms

      English translator unknown

      Sung a cappella by children at Shangri-La

    User reviews149

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Painstaking Restoration of a Rarely Seen Classic Reflects True Vision
    One of my favorite books growing up was James Hilton's classic 1933 book, "Lost Horizon", and I believe it motivated a great deal of my current wanderlust. Even though I have had the misfortune of seeing the disastrous 1973 musical remake when I was young, the original 1937 film adaptation has been a film I have wanted to see for years, but for whatever reason, it was next to impossible to uncover. Apparently, bastardized versions have shown up on TV through the years. Now we are fortunate to have this 1999 restoration spearheaded by UCLA film archivist Robert Gitt to match as closely as possible to Frank Capra's original 132-minute running time.

    Similar to what was done with George Cukor's "A Star Is Born", "Lost Horizon" is presented with its complete soundtrack, but missing footage had to be found through other sources, even 16-mm prints recorded from TV broadcasts, and in a few scenes, production stills were sadly the only option to fill in the gaps. Consequently, there is a variable quality to the print, but when one thinks that much of this footage could have been completely lost, the visual lapses are more than forgivable. Now that I have seen Capra's vision of the book, I can now understand why it's a cinematic classic though I have to concede not as timeless as one would hope.

    The fanciful plot centers on Robert Conway, a top-level English diplomat about to become the Foreign Secretary, who helps refugees and assorted others from war-ravaged China. A motley crew of passengers led by Conway boards a plane that is skyjacked toward the Himalayas where it crash lands in a desolate spot of Tibet. They are eventually met by a sect of locals who takes them to a paradise called Shangri-La. The focus of the story then becomes how each of the plane survivors responds to this utopian existence. With his instantly recognizable mellifluous tone, Ronald Colman is perfectly cast as Conway, the only one who embraces this seemingly perfect haven from the outset. He captures the natural curiosity and open romanticism of his character with his trademark erudite manner.

    The rest of the cast is a gallery of stock characters fleshed out by the variable quality of the performances. H.B. Warner plays Chang with the requisite serenity of his vague, mysterious character; and Jane Wyatt - two decades before playing the perfect suburban wife and mother in "Father Knows Best" - is surprisingly saucy as Sondra, the young schoolteacher who has Conway brought to Shangri-La. She even has a brief nude swimming scene. John Howard unfortunately overplays the thankless role of Conway's obstreperous brother George to the point where I groan every time he appears on screen. A similar feeling comes over me when I see Edward Everett Horton's overly pixilated and fey turn as Lovett and Sam Jaffe's bug-eyed, ethereal High Lama. Isabel Jewell and Thomas Mitchell fare better as a dying prostitute and a fugitive swindler, respectively.

    The set designs for the Shangri-La lamasery by Stephen Goossón are intriguing in that they look like a post-modern tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright's prairie architecture, though one could argue that the exteriors also resemble a fancy Miami Beach resort hotel. I also imagine that the isolationist philosophy espoused by the High Lama may have been at odds with pre-WWII patriotic fervor, though the more lingering problem is the racism apparent in the casting (e.g., non-Asians like Warner playing inscrutable Asians) and the portrayal of the Tibetan porters as gun-toting derelicts. However, for all its flaws, the movie has some really stunning camera-work by Joseph Walker, surprisingly masterful special effects (for a near-poverty row studio like Columbia), Dmitri Tiomkin's stirring musical score and a powerful sense of mysticism that gives the film a genuine soul. It is no accident that Capra, the most idealistic of the master filmmakers, helmed this movie because a more cynical mindset could have easily sabotaged the entire venture.

    The DVD is a wonderful package. First, there is a fascinating photo montage documentary with narration provided by film historian Kendall Miller, which gives a true feeling of how Capra approached the production. Gitt and film critic Charles Champlin provide audio commentary on an alternate track of the film with Gitt very informative about the exhaustive restoration process and Champlin more in awe of the result. There is even an alternative ending included that Columbia chief Harry Cohn insisted on filming and using upon release, but it had thankfully been dropped two weeks later. This is a genuine treat for cinemaphiles, as there are few films that make such a compelling case for seeking out one's personal utopia.
    helpful•41
    4
    • EUyeshima
    • Dec 29, 2005

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ3

    • Why was Maria so anxious to leave Shangri La?
    • Why is Maria so anxious to leave Shangri La?
    • Is the version usually seen faithful to the director's intentions?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 1, 1937 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Sony Pictures
    • Languages
      • English
      • Mandarin
    • Also known as
      • Lost Horizon of Shangri-La
    • Filming locations
      • Ojai, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Columbia Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $4,000,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 12 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Ronald Colman in Lost Horizon (1937)
    Top Gap
    What is the German language plot outline for Lost Horizon (1937)?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.