Random Harvest (1942)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

Claudine West (screenplay) and
George Froeschel (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

14 September 1943 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

It's Great. Great Stars . . . A Great Story . . . A Great Author!

Plot:

An amnesiac World War I vet falls in love with a music hall star, only to suffer an accident which restores his original memories but erases his post-War life.

Plot Keywords:

Music Hall | Asylum | Secretary | Inheritance | Amnesia

Awards:

Nominated for 7 Oscars.

Cast

Ronald Colman	...	Smithy
Greer Garson	...	Paula
Philip Dorn	...	Dr. Jonathan Benet
Susan Peters	...	Kitty
Henry Travers	...	Dr. Sims
Reginald Owen	...	'Biffer'
Bramwell Fletcher	...	Assistant
Rhys Williams	...	Sam
Una O'Connor	...	Tobacconist
Aubrey Mather	...	Sheldon
Margaret Wycherly	...	Mrs. Deventer
Arthur Margetson	...	Chet
Melville Cooper	...	Uncle George
Alan Napier	...	Julian
Jill Esmond	...	Lydia

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:PG (video rating) | Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #8545)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

In her final years at MGM, Joan Crawford was handed weak scripts in the hopes that she'd break her contract. Two films she hungered to appear in were Random Harvest (1942) and Madame Curie (1943). Both films went to bright new star Greer Garson instead, and Crawford left the studio soon after.

Goofs:

Continuity: The position of Kitty's hands change when she is crying in the chapel.

Quotes:

Paula: [in the verge of tears] He'd resent me. He'd accept me. He'd pity me... And he'd resent me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Cagney & Lacey: Happily Ever After (#4.13)" (1985)

Unsurpassable

In every respect, especially its co-stars Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman, 'Random Harvest' is, and will forever remain, THE unsurpassable romantic nonpareil that it is.

Attempting to remake this masterpiece would be the criminal, sad equivalent of graffiti vandals overspraying the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. There has since been no film remotely as riveting, emotionally suspenseful profound and, ultimately, redeeming and breathtakingly glorious; and, I'm not at all sad to say, we will never see its equal or better.

Throughout raptly watching the superb DVD transfer of 'Random Harvest' I lost count of how many times, and I could not measure how uncontrollably, my breath bated and my heart raced, arrested, throbbed, broke, pined, and rejoiced. Oh, what an eternal story! Oh, what a magnificent, unsurpassable film!