Are you familiar with a movie ...

• Aug 11, 2005 04:00 AM ET
• by Maitland McDonagh

Question: Are you familiar with a movie about Shangri-La? The hero crashes in the mountains and is rescued by the natives, then falls in love with a young lady who can't leave the valley without death by old age overtaking her. It was definitely from the black-and-white era. Thank you.

Answer: That would be Lost Horizon, based on James Hilton's perennially popular novel about a hidden paradise somewhere in the Himalayas. The hitch, because there always is one, is that the natives of the magnificent, peaceful Valley of the Blue Moon can't leave. Since you clearly remember the film being in black and white, you saw the glorious 1937 version directed by Frank Capra and starring Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt and Edward Everett Horton. The color, musical remake, also called Lost Horizon (1973), is simply dreadful, despite a strong cast that includes Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann, Sally Kellerman, Michael York, Charles Boyer and Sir John Gielgud (the latter two playing Asian, in one of the film's many, many missteps).