similar plot to Lost Horizon, from 1937. G.Goddess was first... wonder if Hilton was influenced by this one. Also interesting for historical reasons... Goddess was Arliss' 1st COMPLETED talkie film, acc to Wikipedia.org, (even tho Disraeli was released to public 1st) /ksf-2
Lost Horizon was based on the novel by the same name, written by James Hilton. The book was published in 1933. Lost Horizon is deeply moving and thought-provoking at its center. The plot is used to illustrate questions about the human race living in harmony and peace, with love for each other, without greed, without fear. In the end the main character, Conway, leaves Shangri-la behind through his own choice - a corollary to the current state of the world at that time, stumbling towards war.
My understanding is the Green Goddess is based on a play. I find no redeeming values in the script or film. The plot is silly, childish, and yet dangerously racist.
Lost Horizon is a beautiful film and entertaining as well. Green Goddess is a bad film made badly. As alway, these are my opinions. Of course, if I want to keep my ethics intact while watching many old Hollywood films, that has to be done with one eye closed.
"Wow. Our town has only had a Whole Foods for three weeks and we already have our first gay kids."
Racism was rampant in 1930. Unfortunately, it was par for the course. Most any film that wasn't set in Europe or North America was racist. Lives of a Bengal Lancer, Gunga Din, King Kong, The Four Feathers etc. Lost Horizon was a rare exception. And the movie was stagy. Talkies were uncharted territory. You had to overact in silents to convey emotion without voice.
However, I'm not a big fan of this movie. I'm glad I finally caught it. Its one of a handful of Academy Award nominated performances I haven't seen. I was really hoping for more in this year's 31 Days of Oscar.
Ask not that The Good Man can do for you but what you can do for The Good Man
Me too. I really like to see the films TCM doesn't show over and over, the independent, foreign and silent films that I won't have an opportunity to see. I live in a cultural desert where there are only the huge Hollywood multiplexes. I remember watching "The Birth of a Nation" for the first time. I was excited before I saw it because I had heard about the importance of the film. But I was horrified while watching it. Now I look at all films through different eyes and I believe learning anything is a positive step.
shareThe film version doesn't do justice to the play. The Raja is "a tall, well-built man of 40" in the play; in fact, he's devilishly debonair and ruthless, like Heathcliff. If Lucilla were a different type of woman (like the character played by Samantha Eggar in The Light at the Edge of World) she could have had a great time favoring him with her . . . society, as the Raja almost enticingly puts it. Although he also had the role onstage, George Arliss is too thin, creepy, and old in the film to be anything but repulsive in all ways. He reminds me of Geoffrey Rush.
The movie loses all the subtlety and excitement of the play, missing numerous occasions where the tension is heightened and the characters are squared off against each other, later to redeem themselves in surprising ways.
As for racism, the Raja's people are indeed superstitious and ignorant, but they needn't be as uncouth as the movie portrays them. The Raja himself is every bit the equal of his British captives, even though someone must lose in the end.
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Please put some dashes above your sig line so I won't think it's part of your dumb post.
"dumb post." You aren't worth a response.
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