# What is the Old Movie about People Who Don't Age? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363 "2012-01-23T03:37:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bin-Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@Bin-Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bin-Gay)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/1 "2012-01-23T03:37:14Z")
I remember as a kid in the 60’s that I saw a movie about a colony of people who lived in the snowy mountains. They did not age as long as they stayed in the mountain community. Some guy found them; I believe he was the survivor of a plane crash. He, of course, falls in love with one of the beautiful young women and ultimately convinces her to leave with him. Once she crossed the community “boundary”, the magic of agelessness was no more and she aged many many decades in the matter of minutes and died on the mountainside in the cold. I remember I liked the movie as a kid. I wonder, as an adult, if it was actually any good. Do you know the name of the movie and who starred in it? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/2 "2012-01-23T03:41:46Z")
**Lost Horizon** ---
**Author:** ![Bin-Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@Bin-Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bin-Gay)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/3 "2012-01-23T03:43:32Z")
YEEESSSS!! That’s it!! I can now sleep tonight. Thanks 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/4 "2012-01-23T03:44:06Z")
Directed by Frank Capra, starring Ronald Colman, Thomas Mitchell, Jane Wyatt, Edward Everett Horton, H.B. Warner, and Sam Jaffe. Won Oscars for Art Direction and Editing, and nominated for Best Picture (1937) ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/5 "2012-01-23T03:45:16Z")
And also, the first movie I ever remember seeing–so one that’s close to my heart, and still holds up quite well. The mountain community is called Shangri-La ---
**Author:** ![Bin-Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@Bin-Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bin-Gay)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/6 "2012-01-23T03:58:04Z")
I just finished reading about it. I’m happy to find that it was, indeed, a good movie!! Too often what I liked as a kid turns out to be ultra cheesy through adult eyes. I think I will try to find this movie and watch it again. It has all of the elements of drama and fantasy that I like. Who doesn’t want to live in Shangri-La? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/7 "2012-01-23T04:00:31Z")
Books pretty good to. ---
**Author:** ![Bin-Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@Bin-Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bin-Gay)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/8 "2012-01-23T04:39:59Z")
Good idea! I looked to see if I could download it to my Kindle, but no success. I see a trip to the bookstore in my future 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/9 "2012-01-23T04:40:44Z")
Nitpick: Jane Wyatt’s character, the one that Ronald Colman’s character falls in love with, does not age when she leaves at the end because she is not older than she looks. It is another woman\*, who I think was jealous and wanted Colman for herself, who aged like that when she left Shangri-La. This is what happened in the movie, anyway, I can’t speak to the book, although I did read it a very very long time ago. One of my favorite movies; the restored version has some sections where there is audio but no video available, so they included the audio with still photos of the characters. It’s a little jarring, but it doesn’t actually cover a large number of minutes, and I’m glad they included these semi-recovered scenes. \*Not sure, but I think this character was named Maria, played by Margo (niece of Xavier Cugat). Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Bin-Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@Bin-Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bin-Gay)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/10 "2012-01-23T04:52:29Z")
I recall the end of the movie now that you mention it. I vaguely remember that it was “the other woman” that grew old. An interesting angle. Thanks for the movie version tip! ---
**Author:** ![rosella\_alm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/0ea827/32.png) [@rosella\_alm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rosella_alm)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/11 "2012-01-23T05:16:43Z")
It was “Lost Horizon” film with Ronald Colman, and I forget the female stars. It closely followed a very popular book of the same name by James Hilton that was published in the 1930s. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/12 "2012-01-23T06:12:44Z")
It was made into a musical in 1973 that’s significant mainly for being considered one of the worst films of the '70s and one of the worst musicals ever made. I think it influenced the YA novel and movie [Tuck Everlasting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuck_Everlasting), which is set in the Appalachians but is about a family that doesn’t age so long as they don’t leave their mountain. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/13 "2012-01-23T13:45:44Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Nitpick: Jane Wyatt’s character, the one that Ronald Colman’s character falls in love with, does not age when she leaves at the end because she is not older than she looks. It is another woman\*, who I think was jealous and wanted Colman for herself, who aged like that when she left Shangri-La. This is what happened in the movie, anyway, I can’t speak to the book, although I did read it a very very long time ago. The woman who leaves Shangri-La is with the brother of Colman’s character; it is her doing that they have all gone. Colman didn’t really want to leave. She didn’t really want either brother; she just wanted out. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/14 "2012-01-23T21:58:02Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I think it influenced the YA novel and movie [Tuck Everlasting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuck_Everlasting), which is set in the Appalachians but is about a family that doesn’t age so long as they don’t leave their mountain. Except that’s not the plot of Tuck Everlasting. They’re not bound to the place, and in fact leave at the end of the book, only coming back decades later. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/15 "2012-01-23T23:27:23Z")
_Sex and the City?_ ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/16 "2012-01-24T00:13:11Z")
Freebie from the NY Public Library: > **[The Lost Horizon : George Colby Borley : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming...](https://archive.org/details/losthorizon00borlgoog)** > > Book digitized by Google from the library of the New York Public Library and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb. Happy Kindle-ing! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/17 "2012-01-24T01:29:57Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Except that’s not the plot of Tuck Everlasting. They’re not bound to the place, and in fact leave at the end of the book, only coming back decades later. Must be thinking of another; there is a book about an American mountain family that can’t leave if they don’t want to age. Anyone recognize it? ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/18 "2012-01-24T02:04:23Z")
> [@eve](#): > > _sex and the city?_ I don’t often actually lol - but I did this time! UT ---
**Author:** ![Bin-Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@Bin-Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bin-Gay)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/19 "2012-01-24T04:53:34Z")
Thanks VOW for the Kindle option! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363/20 "2012-01-24T10:56:24Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > It was made intoa musical in 1973 that’s significant mainly for being considered one of the worst films of the '70s and one of the worst musicals ever made. I actually saw that movie in the theater when it came out. I liked the acting of Peter Finch. What a waste of my time that I’ll never get back. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-old-movie-about-people-who-dont-age/610363.md?page=2)