A hundred million movie-goers must be right... (1938)

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of the perils Conway and his brother experienced when shanghaied out of the warring world or the icy, winter-lashed mountain trails they braved when they escaped Shangri-la. Incidentally, once an audience is made acutely conscious of impending or surrounding dangers and is then fed a second-hand or intermediary expression of those dangers, grip loosens to the point where no ordinary stimulant can restore it. When Conway was finally seen in a swirling blizzard within sight of the archway to the Valley of the Blue Moon, Lost Horizon's climactic grip had been dissipated in montage. In passing, we might mention that when audience reaction remains static or is suspended for any length of time the longer that suspension the longer it takes to discharge. In that sense the perils braved by Conway and the refugees held the audience so long, no mild or momentary obtrusion could discharge them. But discussion of Conway's disappearance and the montage picturing the danger that threatened his return to Shangri-la was neither momentary nor mild, considering the nature and character of Horizon's message. Offered a choice position in Wall Street the hero in Holiday had the audience high with the hope that he would turn it down ; ending in dismay when he was '•brought around" to a reverence for riches. But the time lapse covering his surrender, seemingly causing a slight dip in the suspense curve, merely leveled it off. Even interpreted technically as a let-dowTn it was of such short duration, with no forces alien to either the desire to live or reverence for riches obtruding, there was no harm done. The stand taken by daughter and father prior to their brief triumph wasn't moderated in the slightest when the boy turned his back on business and society. And when he decided to go on alone, furtherance of his pursuit was just as hot as it was when he dropped it. In many cases, audience reaction becomes so highly static nothing short of a prolonged obtrusion of comedy, romance, hokum or action unrelated to the forces achieving that static, can ground the audience, or effect a total discharge of hopes and fears already generated. 158