整体上尽管无论是原著还是电影，都不可避免地带有西方人对中国的“傲慢与偏见”，但几乎是从我读到原著那时起，康威就成了我最喜欢的小说人物（当然，我读过的书太少、不认识太多小说人物，也是促使康威成为我心尖尖上的那块肉的原因之一）。

原著里关于康威的性格是这样描述的：

"他的个性中有一种特质，有些人可能会把这种特质视为懒散，但其实不尽然。虽然他内心并不积极，也根本不喜欢责任，但在关键时刻，没人比他更能忍辱负重，也没人比他更能担起责任。工作这样要求他，他也尽全力而为。不过他一直打算如果有人能替代他或者做得更好，他就立刻让位。多半是出于这个原因，他在军队中虽然成绩斐然，却远未发挥他的全部能力。他没有踩着别人往上爬的野心，也不会在无所事事的时候硬装出一副忙碌的样子。他做事干练，也镇定自若，人们既钦佩他的冷静，又疑心这冷静未免太不真实。长官们喜欢看到一个人努力约束自我，以表面的淡漠给高贵的情感披上一层伪装。有人阴暗地揣测他，觉得他就像表面上看起来那样冷淡，不管发生什么事情他都无动于衷。但这就像说他懒散一样，都不是确切的解读。大部分人都忽略了他身上那种简单到让人难以理解的特质——对平静、沉思和独处的热爱。”

"There was also in his nature trait which some people might have called laziness, though it was not quite that. No one was capable of harder work, when it had to be done, and few could better shoulder responsibility; but the facts remained that he was not passionately fond of acitivity, and did not enjoy responsibility at all. Both were included in his job, and he made the best of them, but he was always ready to gibe way to anyone else who could function as well or better. It was partly this, no doubt, that had made his success in the service less striking than it might have been. He was not ambitious enough to shove his way past others, or to make an important parade of doing nothing when there was really nothing doing. His dispatches were sometimes laconic to the point of curtness, and hig calm in emergencies, though admired, was often suspected of being too sincere. Authority like to feel that a man is imposing some effort on himself, and that his apparent nonchalance is only a cloak to disguise an outfit of well-bred emotions. With Conway the dark suspision had somtimes been current that he really was as unruffiled as he looked, and that whatever happened, he did not give a damn. But this, too, like the laziness, was an imperfect interpretation. What most observers failed to preveive in him was something quite bafflingly simple, a love of quiteness, contemplation, and being alone."

可惜想在电影中展现出这么一段文字描写，还是极其困难的。

康威也并不适合有爱情线，印象中原著里是没有爱情线的。

根据IMDB和capra本人的采访：“Frank Capra's first cut of the film ran for 6 hours. The first public preview took place in Santa Barbara when the film ran for 3 1/2 hours. Re-shooting and re-cutting followed immediately after this disastrous preview.” 这太遗憾了，就像好奇《乱世佳人》被剪掉的镜头是什么一样，好奇6h或者3 1/2h版本是什么样子的。

在诸多方面，colman都是我心中几乎最合适的conway的人选。根据IMDB：“Frank Capra hated screen tests. Scripts were developed with specific actors in mind. Ronald Colman was first choice to play Conway from the very beginning. ”和“Production was postponed for 18 months waiting for Ronald Colman to be available.” 很惊喜有如此的巧合。colman是英国人、出身至少是中产的家庭、学习优异（所以才能有计划念剑桥）、参加过一战……作为后人，我们很难仅通过导手资料武断地揣测colman是否在个性特质上和conway有很多的重合，但模模糊糊地，我又确实觉得colman和conway有相似之处。

colman在里面穿彼时中国男性的盘扣服装，在风格上并不突兀。而实际上我们这些活在现代化之后的中国的中国人，穿起来过去的衣服时，也完全有大概率呈现出真·张冠李戴的违和。

插几句关于原著作者James Hilton，这位可能也没那么那么有名的小说家还写过比如Goodbye Mr. Chips、Mrs. Miniver和Randon Harvest等作品。这位剑桥校友应该是出身富裕人家吧，他念的中学the Leys——也在剑桥，还是非常贵的，学费和剑桥收国际学生的学费是不相上下的。不知道有没有豆友念得这所中学。

最后，IMDB收录了这么一则有意思的事实：“Bob Gitt of the UCLA Film & Television Archives claims the original opening sequence in 1937 had title cards "Conway has been sent to evacuate ninety white people before they're butchered in a local revolution" was changed in 1942 for a special reissue during WWII. The title cards read "before innocent Chinese people were butchered by Japanese hordes." This was to bolster propaganda against the Japanese.” 不过我所看到得132min版本用得还是1937年版的开幕字幕。