It didn't make sense to me. Who were all the servants? Who built the place? Who did the yard work? It wasn't Shangri-La for them, now, was it? One of the Occidentals even tries to murder a household servant.
There were people who thought it was Communistic, but it was really pro-colonialist.
A small planeload of Westerners flee an uprising in China. The plane is hijacked by an Asian pilot. It crashes in the Himalayas. The passengers are taken to Shangri-La. Everyone there lives in peace and harmony.
This exchange got a laugh from the college kids. Ronald Coleman asks Chang (H.B. Warner) about how things work there:
"You have no disputes over women?"
"Only very rarely. You see, it would not be considered good manners to take a woman that another man wanted."
"Suppose somebody wanted her so badly that he didn't give a hang if it was good manners or not?"
"Well, in that event, it would be good manners on the part of the other man to let him have her."
They live hundreds of years. They don't really do much. Some of them frolic a little. They have time to develop their hobbies. The "natives" are ruled over by a white Catholic "lama" (Sam Jaffe.)
Got off to a slow start. It was half an hour before they got to the place.
Directed by Frank Capra.
A semi-restored 2 hour thirteen minute version is free on Tubi but only nine more days.
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