Lost Horizon [Blu-ray]

PHOTOS 1-5: Original lobby cards, hand-colored in 1937 (the movie is in black & white)-- Five reasons why you should get the new Blu-Ray:1) It has one additional minute of new material not in the 1999 DVD.2) Much better picture and sound than the 1999 DVD.3) It comes packaged in a 32 page hard-cover book.4) SDH subtitles for everything: even the audio commentary has it's own subtitles5) Really cheap. They're practically giving it away.-- 1937 (March) When it was newly released, Frank Capra's 'Lost Horizon' was 132 minutes long-- 1937 (September) Columbia Pictures cut it to 118 minutes (and promptly "lost" 14 minutes)-- 1942: Cut to 110 minutes-- 1948: Restored to 118 minutes-- 1952: Cut to 92 minutes and sold to television-- 1986: Restored to 132 minutes by American Film institute and UCLA-- 1999: DVD release of 132 minute version-- 2017: Blu-Ray release of 132 minute version, updated and digitally remastered in 4-KFrank Capra's 132 minute 1937 version no longer exists.But the people responsible for the 1986 restoration got lucky and found the original 132 minute soundtrack (audio only).They then assembled every available print and fragment of the film in existence, and painstakingly synchronized the surviving visual elements to the 132 minute soundtrack.They even found the video for 7 of the 14 minutes "lost" in 1937, matched them to the soundtrack, and restored them to 'Lost Horizon'.The restored print had 125 minutes of video and 132 minutes of audio.Their solution for the missing 7 minutes was to use still photos of the missing scenes matched to the 7 minutes of audio.Good News: Following the release of the 1999 DVD, one additional minute of "lost" video was discovered and appears for the first time in the 2017 restoration:It's in chapter 8 where Ronald Colman first meets the High Lama played by Sam Jaffe.Additionally a better-looking 16mm print of the cut version was discovered.These two discoveries were the inspiration for the new restoration released in 2017.They were able to use modern 4-K digital restoration techniques, unavailable in 1986, to clean up the picture and sound for Blu-Ray.The "new" restored print has 126 minutes of video and 132 minutes of audio.6 minutes of still photos.The blu-ray gives you a choice of five languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian), plus subtitles in 23 languages.

The movie “Lost Horizon” is a 1937 American drama-fantasy film directed by Frank Capra and based on the 1933 novel of the same name by James Hilton. The film was produced at a time when Hollywood still made reasonable themed films, and this one is a mixture of the then current eastern world with a bit of fantasy mixed in. But it's good fantasy.The story is about five people, trying to escape from war torn China in 1935, and whose plane is hijacked and flown on a mysterious flight path further west into China and Tibet. The plane eventually runs out of fuel and crashes deep in the Himalayan Mountains, killing the pilot. The passengers are miraculously rescued and taken to Shangri-La, an idyllic valley sheltered inside the ring of several mountains from the otherwise bitter high altitude mountain cold. Initially anxious to return to civilization, four of the newcomers grow to love utopian Shangri-La where humans live hundreds of years, where human relationships are voluntary, no masters and no slaves, and where there is no formal government or formal religion, nor laws, nor money, nor force and violence. The people try to be kind to each other. My kind of place.In 2017, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray, transferred from 4k scan restoring another minute of previously lost footage, for a total run time of 133 minutes. This cut of the film includes audio corresponding to footage that remains unrecovered, accompanied by promotional stills and behind the scenes photos. The bonus features and commentary from the 1999 release were retained for the Blu-ray edition.For its time period, this was a very well done movie, and because of its theme, you will not find Hollywood making a film of this theme in the 21st century. If you are into collecting and enjoying older movies, this 133 minute version is a keeper.

Gorgeous restoration on about 90% of the film, an extra minute of film, plus about six minutes of audio only with stills. The extras are great and show us what we could have had if an original negative had been found not to mention some great background information. Capra wanted the film longer than 132 minutes but it flopped. There are people like me who want the 6 hour version. The packaging is excellent with nice glossy booklet. Well worth the upgrade especially at this unbelievable Amazon price of $12.

This – the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment issue released on Amazon on October 3, 2017 – is the Blu-ray to purchase, and what a bargain: the attached booklet of photos are wonderful, the disk has the important extras that were on Sony's initial release, plus chapter stops, resume-play option, and the best (to date) restoration including the approx. one minute recovered footage. Extremely pleased and most highly recommended!

For such an old film the quality is still quite good and the insertion of stills where sections are missing but the dialogue still exists is a good idea although it does take a little getting used to. If you remember the film then your memory can fill in some of the blanks. Who ever produced the copy did a very good job and although some sections are grainy that is to be expected given its age.

A great Classic movie of the 40's. Well worth watching. They do not make films like this anymore. This is a black and white movie with mono soundbut for its era, it is well made. I wish such a place really existed in real life.

This is one of those films which you must see, a definite classic, great sets and great acting, the only negative was that whilst most of the stills used to cover the lack of moving pictures work well, one section lost me a bit as the images used did not help me understand what was happening in sound only

I first saw this film on the TV very many years ago when I was a child (I'm now 58)so I was delighted to see that a restored version is available on DVD. It's astonishing how films of this quality were left to disintegrate so that there is no longer available a complete original negative, when things which should have been chucked out at birth are still in 1 piece. Having said that, the restoration is excellent, as far as was possible to achieve. Quite possibly this was the finest thing Ronald Colman ever did, in a very distinguished career of fine performances - heroic, noble, intelligent and at times painfully poignant. They really don't make them like him anymore.

Based on the enormously popular book by James Hilton - well, it was popular in the 30's - Frank Capra has added adventure and romance to give this rather philosophical tale energy and excitement. The story of a paradise being kept within the security of a mountain range is a tad whimsical, I suppose, but keep in mind the dark times during which the novel was written and the film then made, and it strikes me as poignant and painful. Ronald Colman is completely credible as the heroic lead, handsome in his western civvies as much as in flowing robes, and I loved Jane Wyatt as his romantic foil - she is fresh and just a bit naughty. Supporting characters provide comic relief, but also suggest a range of reactions to living in Shangri-La.