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Lost Horizon is a 1973 musical film directed by Charles Jarrott and starring Peter Finch, John Gielgud, Liv Ullmann, Michael York, Sally Kellerman, Bobby Van, George Kennedy, Olivia Hussey, James Shigeta and Charles Boyer.
The film is a remake of Frank Capra's film of the same name, with screenplay by Larry Kramer. Both films are based on James Hilton's novel. However, the 1973 version was a critical and commercial failure. It is considered one of the last in a string of box office musical failures which came in the wake of the success of The Sound of Music.[
This version is much closer to the 1937 film than to the original James Hilton novel. It tells the story of a group of travellers whose airplane is hijacked while fleeing a bloody revolution.
The airplane crash lands in and unexplored area of the Himalayas, where the party is rescued and taken to the lamasery of Shangri-La. Miraculously, Shangri-La, sheltered by mountains on all sides, is a temperate paradise amid the land of snows. Perfect health is the norm, and inhabitants live to very old ages while maintaining a youthful appearance.
The newcomers quickly adjust to life in Shangri-La, especially Richard Conway (Peter Finch), the group's leader. He meets and falls in love with Catherine (Liv Ullmann), a school teacher. Sally Hughes (Sally Kellerman), a drug-addicted Newsweek photographer is suicidal at first, but begins counselling with lamas Chang (John Gielgud) and To Len (James Shigeta) and discovers a new lease on life. Sam Cornelius (George Kennedy) discovers gold, but Sally convinces him to use his engineering skills to bring better irrigation to the famers of Shangri-La instead of attempting to smuggle the gold out. Harry Lovett (Bobby Van) is a third-rate comic and song and dance man who discovers he has a flair for working with the children of Shangri-La.
Everyone is content to stay except Conway's younger brother, George (Michael York). George has fallen in love with Maria (Olivia Hussey), a dancer, and wants to take her with him when he leaves. Chang warns Richard that Maria came to Shangri-La over eighty years before, at the age of twenty. If she were to leave the valley she would quickly revert to her actual age.
Richard is summoned to meet the High Lama (Charles Boyer), who informs him that the he was brought there for a reason, to take over the leadership of the community when he himself dies. However, the night that the High Lama dies, George and Maria tell Richard that everything the High Lama and Chang have said is a lie, and convince him to leave with them immediately.
Richard is still in shock from the High Lama's death, and leaves without even saying goodbye to Catherine. Not long after their departure Maria suddenly ages and dies, and George falls to his death down an icy ravine. Richard struggles on alone, ending up in a hospital bed in the Himalayan foothills. He runs away, back to the mountains, and miraculously finds the portal to Shangri-La once more.
Lost Horizon has never been officially released on VHS or DVD in the U.S. THIS DVD is the European release (and is not presently owned by an American releasing company) in English; Widescreen; complete & un-cut. American copyright law / "The Berne Act" clearly states: films unreleased in the United States, including original version of films altered and/or edited for release in the United States, are not protected by American copyright; thus, they are considered public domain. If this title should become available domestically , this European version will be withdrawn from our roster.
This special edition reinstates several songs that had been cut from the film during its original theatrical release. Though these missing sequences were found in the Columbia vaults, there are still scenes (among them the infamous “fertility dance”) that are considered lost forever.
Peter Finch best summed up the Lost Horizon experience when, at the end of the film, his character awakens in the hospital and explains that, “I don’t know whether I’ve been mad and am now sane, or sane for a time and now mad again.”
He had it right. Lost Horizon is an undeniably insane experience that should not be missed.
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