Part 44 in Tony's Radio Reviews:
Lost Horizon: A superb show, one of his best, and in some ways preferable to the movie, which I adore. Welles plays the Dali Lama, and for once he's just right. The rest of the cast is perfection, the script is tight and effective and Herrmann's music and the sound effects are cinema quality. It's just a perfect show, and interestingly the very first Campbell Playhouse,so it's got a long intro by the announcer about Welles, and it's hilarious when he keeps saying the events of Welles' life are too well-known to go into, but then goes into them anyways.
Available via internet on cd via www.crabapplesound.com in excellent sound. (Check to see that they have an encrypted order page!)
Next: Rebecca
Lost Horizon
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Re: Lost Horizon
On 3 December 1939, Orson Welles's production of James Hilton's novel "Lost Horizon" was broadcast on "The Campbell Playhouse," CBS-Radio.
James Hilton (1950 interview):
"I wrote “Lost Horizon” in the Winter of 1932, which was a hard Winter for the world. The lowest point, had we then known it, of the Great Depression, and already dark with the threat of war to come. About that time, it probably began to dawn on civilized man that he lived in an age of recurring and deepening crisis, that the military victories did not bring peace, that his world wars would have to be given numbers, and that nowhere on Earth was there any place where the storm could be outridden. It was in this mood that I wrote “Lost Horizon”, and I enjoyed writing it as one may sometimes almost consciously enjoy a dream."
As was discussed awhile ago, the copy of Lost Horizon at Archive.org was of pretty poor sound quality. There was a much better sounding one at "My Old Radio", but that website, like the Crabapple site listed above, now appears to have gone belly up. Too bad.
James Hilton (1950 interview):
"I wrote “Lost Horizon” in the Winter of 1932, which was a hard Winter for the world. The lowest point, had we then known it, of the Great Depression, and already dark with the threat of war to come. About that time, it probably began to dawn on civilized man that he lived in an age of recurring and deepening crisis, that the military victories did not bring peace, that his world wars would have to be given numbers, and that nowhere on Earth was there any place where the storm could be outridden. It was in this mood that I wrote “Lost Horizon”, and I enjoyed writing it as one may sometimes almost consciously enjoy a dream."
As was discussed awhile ago, the copy of Lost Horizon at Archive.org was of pretty poor sound quality. There was a much better sounding one at "My Old Radio", but that website, like the Crabapple site listed above, now appears to have gone belly up. Too bad.
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Wich2
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Re: Lost Horizon
I recently was able to acquire a decent copy of this one, and then tweaked it up a bit to decent+ audio. First time I'd heard it; so, some thoughts:
Correcting Tony's note above, the show was not Welles' first Campbells'; that had been REBECCA, a year before.
It is a solid show. There are longer-than-usual passages where Herrmann and his musicians carry the piece alone; I think this may have been an attempt to help create the slower, less harried feel of Shangri-La.
Orson takes the role of the High Lama, and I'd bet that's because he gets several long monologues that are chock-full of the type of social thought near and dear to his heart, about the folly of war, and the importance of knowledge and cooperation. But I wonder if the show might not have been better served by him playing Conway...
I believe that's George Coulouris in this case, and though a fine actor in many of these broadcasts, he doesn't seem to have the presence here to hold the lead as well as the story requires. Sigrid Gurie is the guest star, and she's okay as Conway's ethereal lady love.
Overall, the Merc's usual worthy audioization of a source text, and worth a listen.
-Craig
Correcting Tony's note above, the show was not Welles' first Campbells'; that had been REBECCA, a year before.
It is a solid show. There are longer-than-usual passages where Herrmann and his musicians carry the piece alone; I think this may have been an attempt to help create the slower, less harried feel of Shangri-La.
Orson takes the role of the High Lama, and I'd bet that's because he gets several long monologues that are chock-full of the type of social thought near and dear to his heart, about the folly of war, and the importance of knowledge and cooperation. But I wonder if the show might not have been better served by him playing Conway...
I believe that's George Coulouris in this case, and though a fine actor in many of these broadcasts, he doesn't seem to have the presence here to hold the lead as well as the story requires. Sigrid Gurie is the guest star, and she's okay as Conway's ethereal lady love.
Overall, the Merc's usual worthy audioization of a source text, and worth a listen.
-Craig
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Wellesnet
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Lost Horizon
Good copy of the show (best I've heard by far) at the IU Welles radio website:
https://orsonwelles.indiana.edu/items/show/2006
https://orsonwelles.indiana.edu/items/show/2006