Comment

Capra's masterpiece, a welcome change from his usual feel-good Americana. Ronald Colman is the only actor for the role of Conway, and Jane Wyatt is cuter than anything. The supporting parts are expertly handled, and Capra has somehow gotten the ham actor Thomas Mitchell to keep it down to a dull roar. This restored version has some interesting supplemental features. The movie was vastly expensive for its time, and every buck shows up on the screen, especially the breathtaking Streamline Moderne architecture of the lamasery in Shangri-La. The black and white cinematography is luminous, and the music score by Tiomkin is fine. This is not the 1973 musical remake, which was just awful.