![]() A search party follows, yet loses his trail as he has regained his beloved Shangri-La. He then departs, determined to regain his destiny in the mystical land. As he sails back to England however his memory of Shangri-La returns and he tells his fantastic tale to the crew. George falls to his death after losing Maria, and Robert suffers amnesia and nearly dies in reaching a mission in China. Robert’s brother George does not intend to stay and so Robert out of loyalty and concern departs with him and Maria only to discover to their horror that she ages rapidly and dies, no longer protected by the magical age preserving properties of Shangri-La. He then names Robert as his heir, and blissfully passes away at the age of 200 years. When Robert meets the High Lama, he is stunned when the elder informs him that it was, he who brought them to Shangri-La. They are rescued by a mysterious man called Chang who leads them to a hidden and verdant valley called Shangri-La, where people live in idyllic peace and harmony, free of disease and blessed with unnatural long life. As they depart, the plane’s pilot has been replaced and they are hijacked, which ends with them running out of fuel and crashing deep in the Himalayas mountains. He is currently posted to China and ordered to evacuate 90 westerners lest they be captured by approaching Chinese revolutionaries. The story centers on Robert Conway a writer and soldier set to return to England to assume the Foreign Secretary position in 1935. Warner as Chang, Sam Jaffe as the High Lama, John Howard as George Conway, Edward Everett Horton as Alexander Lovett, Thomas Mitchell as Henry Barnard and Margo as Maria. ![]() Joining him would be Jane Wyatt as Sondra Bizet, H. The novel was adapted to the screen by screenwriter Robert Riskin, and a stellar cast was brought in led by Ronald Coleman as Robert Conway. The film was a passion project that Capra would produce and direct. He eventually received the green light to proceed from Columbia Pictures executive Harry Cohn who provided a very generous budget of $1.25 million. He was determined to adapt it to the big screen but had to delay production when his starring actor Ronald Coleman was contractually committed to another project. During the filming of It Happened One Night in 1934 director Frank Capra read and became inspired by the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton.
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