Lost Horizon

After a string of his successful romantic comedies, Columbia gambled on Frank Capra's tale of peace and prosperity by giving him the biggest budget ($2.5 million) to date. Billed as the "mightiest of all motion pictures" and based on James Hilton's novel, this fantasy-adventure won two Academy Awards® (Art Direction and Film Editing) and was nominated for five others, including Best Picture. Dashing Ronald Colman portrays Robert Conway, a British diplomat disillusioned with modern-day life. Conway and four others are escaping by plane from revolutionary China when they're kidnapped and crash land in the Himalayas. Sherpas guide them across the mountains into the protected valley of the mysterious Shangri-La. Conway falls for sweet Sondra (Jane Wyatt) but must decide if this utopian society is everything the High Lama claims it is. The perpetual optimism that characterized Capra's films was evident in one of the last lines, "Here's my hope that we all find our Shangri-La." Over the years, Capra's cut was re-edited and original versions of it deteriorated or were lost. Painstaking restoration efforts have finally brought the film close to Capra's original.