Oscar Profile #284: James Hilton

Born September 9, 1900 in Leigh, Lancashire, England, James Hilton was the son of John Hilton, headmaster of Chapel End School in Walthamstow. He was educated at the Leys School in Cambridge and then Christ’s Church in Cambridge, where he wrote his first novel at the age of 20.

Hilton’s first novel, Catherine Herself was published in 1920. His fourth novel, 1925’s Dawn of Reckoning was made into the 1940 film, Rage in Heaven. His eighth novel, 1931’s Murder at School was his only murder mystery. His eleventh novel, 1933’s Knight Without Armor began a string of successes that included the same year’s Lost Horizon, 1934’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips, 1937’s We Are Not Alone, 1941’s Random Harvest, 1944’s The Story of Dr. Wassell, his only work of non-fiction, and 1945’s So Well Remembered, all of which were made into major motion pictures.

Moving to Hollywood in the mid-thirties, he was married to first wife Alice Brown in 1935 and divorced from her in 1937. He married second wife, Russian actress Galina Kopernak in 1937 was and divorced from her in 1945.

Hilton’s first screenplay was 1937’s Camille, followed by his screenplay for his own We Are Not Alone in 1939 after the enormous success of Lost Horizon and Goobye, Mr. Chips, which were adapted by other writers. He next wrote the dialogue for 1940’s Foreign Correspondent and adapted Nordhoff and Hall’s The Tuttles of Tahiti for the screen in 1942. That same year, his contribution to Mrs. Miniver earned him his solo Oscar nomination and win while his own Random Harvest was adapted for the screen by others. In 1943 he worked on the screenplay for Forever and a Day but his own The Story of Dr. Wassell the following year was once again adapted by others. 1946’s Cluny Brown was the last screenplay he contributed to, after which he narrated the 1947 film of his own So Well Remembered. From 1948 to 1953 he was host the highly popular CBS radio program, The Hallmark Playhouse.

James Hilton died of liver cancer on December 20, 1954. He is buried in Abington, Virginia.

Wilton’s most famous works have a life of their own. In 1960, six years after his death, Mrs. Miniver and Lost Horizon were made into TV movies. The following year Random Harvest was made into a Turkish film. 1969 gave us a musical film version of Goodbye, Mr. Chips and 1973 gave us a musical version of Lost Horizon. In 1984 Goodbye, Mr. Chips became a six-part TV mini-series. Hilton’s beloved Mr. Chipping, whom he based on his father, appeared once again in a 2002 TV movie of Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

LOST HORIZON (1937), Directed by Frank Capra

Hilton’s book gave us Shangri-La, the utopian Tibetan monastery in the midst of a beautiful mountain valley. The film version starred Ronald Colman as the level-headed diplomat among a group of disparate plane crash survivors who are led by guide H.B. Warner to the monastery ruled by 200-year-old priest Sam Jaffe. Jane Wyatt, John Howard, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton and a buxom Isabel Jewell fill in in for the book’s stern missionary co-star. Nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture and Supporting Actor (Warner), it won two for Best Art Direction and Best Film Editing.

GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS (1939), directed by Sam Wood

Hilton based the beloved teacher and headmaster Mr. Chipping (“Chips” for short) on his father, a headmaster of a British school of his own. Robert Donat had the role of his celebrated career as the retired headmaster looking back on his career and earned a richly deserving Oscar for his performance. Greer Garson, making her Hollywood debut, was nominated for her portrayal of his tender and loving wife and the film itself was nominated for Best Picture, along with four other awards totaling seven in all. The 1969 musical remake starring Peter O’Toole and Petula Clark was nominated for two Oscars of its own – Best Actor and Best Score.

WE ARE NOT ALONE (1939), directed by Edmund Goulding

Hilton was a highly accomplished and screenwriter as well as a much loved author, but oddly enough only got to adapt one of his novels for the screen. That novel was the somber We Are Not Alone about a terrible miscarriage of justice. Paul Muni, for once sans beard, plays an amiable doctor whose friendship with his son’s tutor, Jane Bryan, is mistaken for lust by his harridan of a wife (Flora Robson). When the wife is accidentally killed by ingesting the wrong medication, Muni is suspected of murder, convicted and sentenced to be hanged when the truth emerges but it is too late.

MRS. MINIVER (1942), directed by William Wyler

Hilton was one of four writers credited with the screenplay for the film version of Jan Struthers’ novel for which he won his only Oscar. Who better than the author of Goodbye, Mr. Chips and Random Harvest should be tasked with contributing to the screenplay about a British family caught up in the early days of World War II? The hugely successful box office hit credited with turning the tide of America’s affinity for the British during the war won six Oscars in all including Best Picture, Director, Actress (Greer Garson) and Supporting Actress (Teresa Wright).

RANDOM HARVEST (1942), directed by Mervyn LeRoy

Garson may have won her Oscar for Mrs. Miniver but she was just as good, if not better, as the Scottish music hall chanteuse who beguiles World War I amnesiac Ronald Colman in this improbable romance in which the now married couple is split apart when on a trip to London Colman regains his previous memory and forgets all about Garson and their idyllic life together. The ever resourceful Garson tracks him down, becomes secretary to the now wealthy Colman and enters into a marriage of convenience. Will their old love be rekindled? Suffice it to say the film didn’t earn its seven Oscar nominations just for teasing its audience.