Lost Horizon
The Castro Theater's Frank Capra series concludes with his audacious film of James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon, certainly the most ambitious attempt at realizing a utopian society ever made by a Hollywood filmmaker. A yearning for a magical perfect land was ever-present in Capra's work -- Clark Gable speaks of a desert isle in It Happened One Night and he's echoed by many of Capra's other dreamer figures. The story has diplomat Ronald Colman and his airship of fools escaping from the chaos of war-torn China. When they suddenly find themselves in a sunny valley hidden in the snowy Himalayas it comes as no great shock, so carefully has Capra's dramaturgy built up to his revelation of Shangri-La. Perhaps our contemporary veneration of Tibet as the New Age Holy Land started here, or with Hilton's novel. Alas, Capra's attempt to render this particular version of an earthly paradise believable ultimately evaded his grasp: Shangri-La's details are inescapably Californian, all too rooted in the filmmaker's time (1937) and place (Hollywood, U.S.A.). Yet the attempt was not unworthy, and the director certainly mounts an unforgettable finale as Colman -- excellent, as the film's anchor in reality -- struggles through the snow to refind his lost heaven. This is the restored 132-minute version of the film. Some key scenes have been salvaged from grainy 16mm prints; two others are nothing more than stills with dialogue running over them.
-- Gregg Rickman
Lost Horizon screens Wednesday, May 28, at 12:50, 5, and 9:20 p.m. (with Dirigible at 3:15 and 7:30 p.m.) at the Castro, Castro & Market. Tickets are $6.50; call 621-6120.
