Lost Horizon

Here's one of the great dream fulfilment movies, showing that there is a heaven on Earth with lasting peace and happiness, tucked away in the Himalayas. In his enthusiasm to film the novel by James Hilton (who also wrote Goodbye, Mr Chips), Columbia's ace director Frank Capra persuaded the studio to spend a record $2.5 million. The money was well utilised to create a Shangri-la of Art Deco cleanliness (the art direction won one of the film's two Oscars) and simplicity populated with unfamiliar faces - most memorably Sam Jaffe as the 250-year-old High Lama - to contrast with the typecasting of Ronald Colman, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton and others as the outsiders. Colman ensures the film's success - his sincerity and passion make believers of us all.