Random Harvest (1942)

Random Harvest
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by Claudine West, George Froeschel, and Arthur Wimperis based on the novel by James Hilton
1942/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Paula: Oh Smithy, You’re ruining my makeup.[/box]

Some tearjerkers make me cry.  Others do not.  This one does.

Charles Ranier (Ronald Colman) is a shell-shocked WWI veteran who has lost his memory and has difficulty speaking.  His identity is unknown so he is called “John Smith”. He has been placed in an asylum where he is gradually improving.

Attracted by noise coming from the local town on Armistice Day, he walks out of the asylum.  Music hall singer Paula (Greer Garson) sees the dazed man and takes pity on him.  Her pity grows to love and she nurses him back to health.  They eventually marry and have a son.  Charles becomes well enough to sell some articles to the Liverpool newspaper.  When the paper offers him a job, he goes off for an interview in the city leaving Paula and their newborn son behind.

Charles is hit by a car in Liverpool.  This knock on the head restores his memory of his life up to his trauma in WWI but erases his memory of the preceding three years.  It turns out Charles is the son of an immensely wealthy family.  He goes home and is soon put in charge of the family business.  He becomes known as “The Prince of English Industry” and starts a courtship with his brother’s young stepdaughter (Susan Peters).  All the while, he is nagged by brief glimmers of his lost memory.

After some time, Paula locates Charles and gets a job as his executive assistant.  She becomes indispensable to him.  On medical advice, she does not reveal her identity as his wife.  Many years pass as things seem more and more hopeless for poor Paula.   Until they get better, that is ….  With Henry Travers, Reginald Owen, and Una O’Connor in small parts.

The story is transparently manipulative but it works a treat on me, thanks largely to the fantastic performances by Colman and Garson.  Colman, in particular, is brilliant.  The one distraction is that he seems to me much too old for the role.  It doesn’t matter much once one is into the story.  If you like this type of romance, the film should not be missed.

Random Harvest was nominated for seven Academy Awards:  Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor; Best Supporting Actress (Peters); Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Herbert Stothart).

Clip – Smithy proposes