“THE LOST HORIZON”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 11 September 1937, Page 14

“THE LOST HORIZON”

"The Lost Horizon” might be j described as almost the ultimate j achievement in motion pictures. : The effect on the mind is almost | indescribable. For hours the on- j looker jives at Shangri-La, in j that valley which has not only j sweeping beauty for the eye but j beauty in miniature, in the ex- | quisitely fine detail of its artistry, j Into a vast unknown world are i suddenly transported four or five ! modern human beings. They are, J with the exception of Robert ! Conway, the Englishman who j should be on his way to London j to become Foreign Secretary, j everyday people. Conway, in 1 which role Ronald Colman plays I the most difficult and the most j satisfying part of his career, is i first seen when he is in charge of = the rescue of Europeans in a ! Chinese rising. ) At last the ’planes with the j refugees are all despatched, and - amid hurry and confusion, Con- ] way and his companion—Edward | Everett Horton, playing the fussy | paleontologist with his precious : piece of vertebrae, John Howard, ? who appears as Conway’s ( brother, Isabel Jewell, the sick j wretched young woman, and jj Thomas Mitchell, the shady but = cheerful American—fly from the § scene. j

They are headed for Shanghai. : When morning comes they dis- ! cover that the plans has been I travelling west all night. Other } discoveries follow, one being that j an Oriental has been substituted = for their pilot. ! The journey takes them across { mountains where the snow blows j eternally. Higher and higher they x go, thousands of feet towards ! the sky, and still the mountains I are just below. fine of the early j astonishments is to pause at some j barbaric outpost, to find that the j ’plane has been expected, and f that a supply of petrol is in j readiness. | The journey continues until the j ’plane is forced down. f Help comes, and the party is | escorted to Shangri-La, this j valley of loveliness, in the : Tibetan mountains. = Here is found a life of amazing I strangeness, a life which makes { an overpowering appeal to Con- j way, but which shocks and ? affronts his brother. Here are ! the High Lama, most marvellous- ) ly portrayed by Sam Jaffe, the j Sondra of Jane Wyatt, the tragic i story of Maria, so perfectly at- ! tuned to the surroundings by I Margo, and the Chang of li. B. j Warner. j