Two That Are Treasured

Honk If You Love Lost Horizon or Raintree County

Certain pictures have champions, the word “cult” not inapt to describe relationship between devoted enough fans and a particular show that moves them so profoundly. It is a marker beyond favorites, being an experience profound that will occupy thoughts of a devotee from there on. To admit an all-immersion might reveal one as obsessive, a kook of a sort, depending on the movie you chose. I might be uneasy meeting someone who lives life in service to Dawn of the Dead, many, perhaps wisely, keeping fervent picks to themselves. Others wave their banner high, have spoke to skies of what film, or films, fill a dedicated life. Books may result, or decades spent at research. A historian named Seymour Stern did sheaves on The Birth of a Nation, so much as to defy completion, a volume based on what Stern left brought to us by Ira Gallen, an archivist of considerable note. So where is dividing line between picking one’s favorites, we all have those, and total engagement which far fewer of us experience? Two I watched in a past couple weeks have had hypnotic effect upon many. Lost Horizon and Raintree County may be mixed bags to some, worth a look and then move on, but for those all-in (lots, as I’ve learned), these are divine objects, no detail of content or production to go unexamined.

The fact both were amended prior to, and after, release, qualifies them all a more to savor and protect. What masterpieces might emerge if only so-far lost footage could be found and put properly back? I’m not worthy to discuss either, certainly not after observing inquiry and effort others have invested. Mine may not be unqualified praise, but I enjoy Lost Horizon and Raintree County very much, and yes, any “news” about them will snap me to attention. Latest headline, the word used lightly because said event went unheralded, was Raintree County showing up for a first time on TCM in High-Definition. After years seeing it cloudy and wan, this for me was news. Stumbling upon the milestone midway, it was too late to capture, so I would wait for a repeat with DVR poised. Revelation is a strong term, but there it be for seeing Raintree County a first really time. Scratch previous issues, as there never was a DVD, the cassettes were cropped, and a laser disc, even at roadshow length (apx. fourteen more minutes), could not meet modern standards. I broke mine down to two sittings, as though I were there for holiday season 1958 when Raintree County first broke (that story Greenbriar-told HERE). A lot of people went to see this film, many cherishing memory for there on. They gather yet on forums to discuss infinite detail re roadshow, edits, what might /should have been, and why doesn’t Warners put back footage and do a deluxe Blu-ray this classic so richly deserves?

Lost Horizon was sliced/diced ever which way from its start. First previews at three hours, soon gone … Frank Capra said he threw his opener two reels into a furnace and watched nitrate flash and burn. Who needs an anecdote to be entirely true where it’s this good? Capra could put Peter Cottontail in his book and I would buy every word. He knew value of imagination and showmanship in writing … silly boy, says nit-pick modern scholars … but Capra found solace in fortunes he earned, so who, really, are the silly boys? There is a marvelous extra on the Blu-Ray, by historian Jeremy Arnold, that explains how Lost Horizon got made, big chunks shot in a below freezing L.A. icehouse, with ninety and up degrees outdoors. Stills show Capra directing like the Field Marshal he was, hundreds of cast and crew, thousands of details for the man to master. Next time I am of mind to criticize Capra, or artists like him in any way, I need but to consult these images. Lost Horizon was ambitious beyond 1936-37 imaginings, upwards of two million at stake, and this was Columbia money, not MGM’s. James Hilton source novel was a natural for movies --- no one could say making it was a bad idea. Another instance this was of spending more money than could be got back, Lost Horizon earning $1.6 million in domestic rentals, so yes, it was attended and enjoyed, but crepe got hung on anything that didn’t do big profits, so flop tick clings to Lost Horizon. Still I’d say this won more fans than any Capra save It’s A Wonderful Life, but does Life inspire yet a level of devotion it had twenty-thirty years ago? Times change and so does preference.

Can Anyone Identify What It Is They Are Eating?

Raintree Country was liked, popular, and remembered. There were soundtrack albums that came, went, were sought after fiercely once gone (a fine double CD since available). The film saw profit despite colossal costs that should have sunk it. The adapted-from novel was revered in 1948, a “Book of the Month” selection that kept selling for years after. I’m told, lately by several, that Raintree County is among the best novels they ever read. I might try but for daunt of 1000 pages, cut from close-to-double the length by insistent editors before first copies of Ross Lockridge’s book went out. His story is tragic, told at a detailed website kept by son Larry Lockridge. Raintree County was picked too for an MGM “Annual Novel Award,” a contest begun in 1944, and a biggest payout any writer could hope for, as here was cash plus inside track to movie adaptation. Raintree County got the Metro nod in 1947, Ross Lockridge and his publisher left to fight over who would get lion share of the Lion’s money. All this plus fact MGM demanded Lockridge cut 50,000 more words from his manuscript made the author feel he had sold out before Raintree County went on shelves. Severe depression that resulted is thought to have led to Lockridge’s death two months after the novel was published in January 1948.

I asked myself through Lost Horizon, who but Colman could play this? Ideal he was, even as others on further consideration might come at least close. Brian Aherne was tabbed when it briefly looked like they could not have Colman. I thought no initially, then remembered Juarez, and how fine Aherne was in a part not unlike Lost Horizon in respects (a gentle dreamer for peace faced by hard realities). Occurs to me too that Leslie Howard could have delivered, did in fact on previous occasions. Who is Robert Conway but Alan Squier from The Petrified Forest, or Ashley Wilkes for that matter? Not identical, but similar, parts, and Howard brought distinction to them. Another nominee, were it 1936 and me casting for Capra and Columbia … Charles Boyer. Hollywood was blessed with types, established personas, able to step confidently into however demanding a star part might be. Of course, once he was set, there came simple matter of further customizing Lost Horizon to Colman’s fit, crowds coming reliably out to say, Yes, he was born to play Robert Conway. Director Capra cleaved to distinct personalities; I read one co-worker who said the director especial relied upon comic relief, but there may be too deep a well when it’s Edward Everett Horton on an airplane in genuine peril and he will not shut up. Where a situation is genuinely perilous, the last thing I want is strident humor trying too hard to level it. Must also admit bristles on other passengers apart from Colman --- Thomas Mitchell, too long till telling us what he is running from, Isabel Jewell hostile to a point where I cease to care, and John Howard who I’d like to forgive for playing Colman’s truculent brother “as it was written,” but that doesn’t make him easier to take. He stays too agitated for an already agitating situation. And something else I realized here … a purely personal thing … I don’t like Ronald Colman being yelled at, ever. Words of a protective fan? So be it.

Checking Out Glories of 70mm

Raintree County was a fifties generation’s Gone With The Wind, a same sprawl, stars then at a peak of public interest, with a Civil War for backdrop. To tame the book was known hopeless from a moment anyone tried, so why pretend to “adapt” same? Enough to write a more-less original and call it Raintree County. The tie-in paperback would be shortened even more from Lockridge’s text being reprinted. MGM shot in “Camera 65,” a bigger-than-big frame to promise clarity not experienced since early 30’s tries, a benefit even to 35mm prints ultimately the format of choice after roadshow dates broke down. The Facebook group devoted to Raintree County emphasizes quest to have it on Blu-Ray, and having seen the HD upgrade on TCM, I understand their passion, because yes, it is vast and often quite grand (note the monster script at upper right that Monty and Liz had to lug around). For all of length, I did not weary, partly being impressed by sheer size and how varied incident plus a game cast dealt its audience more than fair. There is as much drama in backstage circumstance as onscreen conflict, specific being Montgomery Clift’s car smash that forever put his beauty to rout, though to my estimate, Clift the actor got better for the mishap, and maybe he was as pleased to be done with the fan idol weight borne since forties’ start. Clift acknowledged viewer sport of ID’ing scenes as pre-or-post wreck. By finish of Raintree County, he cared less because this for him was an ill-judged movie hobbled further by his own "bad" performance. Clift went hardest on himself. I say he was great just for walking in a room. Montgomery Clift for me is everything Brando was cracked up to be.

I wonder if MGM’s Land of Oz was inspired, at least in part, by Lost Horizon. Or ultra-modern theatres where both pictures would be shown. For scenes of H. B. Warner showing Colman around cavernous digs, I wanted a cleaning lady in the far background to plug in a vacuum cleaner and go to work. Settings cannot be too lush for me, as nothing of reality intrudes here. Colman interviewing with the High Lama leaves me cool, however. Being petty as never to deserve such an audience myself, I kept wondering what happened to the Lama’s front teeth, and wasn’t there someone in Shangri-La who could fix that? Sam Jaffe seems more weird than wonderful. Food for might-have-been thought: Suppose he turned out to be a Hocus-Pocus like Frank Morgan as the Wizard, Colman left to pick up the pieces. Had I been latter in either case, the Shangri-La rose would have lost its bloom here, John Howard’s vote for a powder an increasingly sane one. Who to be chief Lama if not Jaffe? I’ll go off rails and say Boris Karloff. Yes, seriously … he would have been marvelous. The voice, strength, authority, even hint of menace, that Jaffe could never have for me. A great character part to send BK career in a whole new direction. Roads not taken. Spoke to Conrad Lane as to when he first saw Lost Horizon. It was 1948, Shangri-La by then a serving of chopped liver at around an hour and forty minutes. We are lucky to have it in roughly roadshow form, even if six or so minutes are told by sound, but no picture, stills the substitute like used for A Star Is Born. They do not disturb as with the 1954 musical, and certainly the Blu-Ray is leap-bound ahead of discs released previous.