Barnes & Noble

One of the glossiest romantic dramas from MGM’s golden age, 1942’s Random Harvest boasts superior production values and features Greer Garson in another luminous performance. Earlier in ’42, Garson had graced the screen as Mrs. Miniver, portraying a wartime paradigm of home-front self-sacrifice and winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in the process. She’s no less superb here as Paula, a music-hall entertainer who helps a shell-shocked, amnesiac World War I veteran (Ronald Colman) escape confinement in an asylum. They fall in love. They marry. Then, one day, the handsome Brit takes another knock to the head, realizes he’s a man of means, and returns to his prewar life -- forgetting all about Paula. Warned against shocking her husband's still-fragile psyche by revealing her identity, Paula takes a job as his secretary, remaining at his side as he becomes a wealthy industrialist. Based on a bestseller by Lost Horizon author James Hilton, this stirring drama provided the uplift so desperately needed by World War II audiences and remains a sentimental favorite from the period. Mervyn LeRoy’s direction, while stately, gives numerous opportunities to its top-billed stars; veteran leading man Colman acquits himself well, but relative newcomer Garson overshadows him with a performance that’s carefully modulated and intensely emotional at the same time. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

At the close of World War I, shell-shocked amnesia victim Ronald Colman is sequestered in a London sanitarium; with no identity and no next of kin, he has nowhere else to go. Unable to stand the loneliness, Colman wanders into the streets, then stumbles into a music hall, where he is befriended by good-natured entertainer Greer Garson. That Colman and Garson fall in love and marry should surprise no one; what is surprising, at least to Colman, is that he discovers that he has a talent for writing. Three years pass: while in Liverpool to sell one of his stories, Colman is struck down by a speeding car. When he comes to, he has gained full memory of his true identity; alas, he has completely forgotten both Garson and their child. Returning to his well-to-do relatives, Colman takes over the family business. Having lost her child, the distraught Garson seeks out the missing Colman. Psychiatrist Philip Dorn helps Garson, advising her that to reveal her identity may prove a fatal shock for her husband. To stay near him all the same, Garson takes a job as Colman's secretary. "Strangely" attracted to Garson, Colman falls in love with her all over again. Will there be yet another memory lapse? Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't believe a minute of Random Harvest, but the magic spell woven by the stars and by author James Hilton (Lost Horizon, Goodbye Mr. Chips etc.) transforms the wildly incredible into the wholly credible (just one quibble: isn't Colman a bit long in tooth as a "young" World War I veteran?) The film was one of MGM's biggest hits in 1942--indeed, one of the biggest in the studio's history. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 012569525122
• Source: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: B&W
• Sound: Dolby Digital Mono
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 2:06:00
• Sales Rank: 2,446

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