Random Harvest
by Mervyn LeRoy
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DVD details
Actor: Greer Garson, Henry Travers, Philip Dorn, Ronald Colman, Susan PetersDirector: Mervyn LeRoy
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 126 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-01-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 65251
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Random Harvest
DVD Review: a lovely touching bittersweet story of lost and found love....
Summary: 5 Stars
RANDOM HARVEST (1942)
GREER GARSON-PAULA
RONALD COLMAN-SMITHY
PHILLIP DORN-psychiatrist
i think the reason that this film works for me is that i recognized immediately a sweet caring scenario about a woman who sees something special in a man that no one else can see...it succeeds magically* throughout because of three things~!!!...garson...garson...garson AND colman....well ok four things!!!
the camera guides us under and through a lush archway of trees to a perfectly framed entrance of a dark mysterious old brink building....we notice the word sanitarium carved above the door....(doors and windows seem to hold a lot of symbolism)...
the scene shifts to the psychiatrists..phillip dorn's office where an anxious couple has come... in desperation....hoping to find their long lost missing son...apparently just one of many who suffer the ill effects of war and are lost and forgotten.... the missing....
when smithy is introduction to the couple and they find out that he is not their son...it is heartbreaking......smithy struggles to understand his plight through a sad crushed expression...when he realizes that these people are not going to take him home....
after that ill fated encounter...smithy makes a decision to leave the sanatorium and find out on his own who he is....he dresses in his uniform....and wanders out into the foggy dark night...
in a touching bit of dialogue...he reassures himself that he can make it on his own in the world...he keeps repeating to himself over and over "I'm all right, really!!!"...and we see him proceed in the opposite direction...through that same arch of trees...down the long lonely road right into town....
LOUD scary confusing sirens and cheers everywhere!!!!....the war is over!!! the streets are full of gleeful revelers...even the security guards at the sanitarium were so excited that they left their post...giving coleman a perfect "open door" in witch to escape into a brand new world!...
colman is forced to shove his way through the crowded streets...becaming overwhelmed...he darts into a charming old tobacco shop!!...through his strange behavior....the proprietor quickly deduces that he must be from the nearby sanitarium and goes to alert the authorities....
enter sweet bright eyed garson....a stunning redhead with a smile that can't help but radiate warmth...she literally glows!!! ...garson observes what's going on and advises coleman to leave before he is discovered....
moments later... while walking down the street...garson spots colman shuttering alone in a dark alleyway....appearing lost!!...not knowing what to do....she takes him gently by the arm...and escorts him to a friendly nearby pub...later not knowing what else to do with her new sad charge she takes him with her upstairs to her dressing room where she must get ready for her nightly show....
this is one of my favorite scenes...coleman sits slumped in a chair as garson chats merrily from behind a screen...as she reappears...she spins a chair around and straddles it backwards in a spunky sexy playful way...facing a practically incoherent coleman...she tries to get him to warm to her...at this point...he has shows us a sweet small glimmer of recognition in his expression....
when garson's acting company goes on tour...she decides to take coleman with her...however...shortly there after...things go awry...and she is forced to leaves the company...taking smithy with here....they end up in the lovely english countryside at a small inn where coleman starts begins to heal and rebuild what is left of his life...
he soon proposes to garson...they marry and garson has a child... colemans career as a writer starts to take off and he's offered a job in another city...when he is forced into saying goodbye to garson...who had taken to her bed with pregnancy...she asks him reluctantly...when he'll return...he tells her...tomorrow night...he whispers to the maid to look after his wife...as they say good bye to each other for the last time....we see the door slowly close....as we see the look of worry on garson's face....the door mercifully closes and removes us from that heartbreaking moment of fear dread and doubt...
coleman suffers a car accident...and as a result...loses any memory of his past life with garson...blindly he somehow finds his way back to his original home...Random Hall...and to his original family...
slowly he returns to the family business!! at this point...i am shocked to see garson's entrance into his office as his private secretary...of course...he has no recognition who she really is... we find out now how strong garson is and that she is working for the man that she loves but who does not know her or love her...
she breaks down one day and confesses at to the dorn..."i'm real!!! my tears are real!!! my jealousy is real!!! my feelings are...."...she starts to cry and can't continue.. dorn then tells her about the doors opening and closing in colman's fragile frame of mind and warns caution...
later garson bravely agrees to try and help colman uncover those missing years... he confides to her...."I feel as though a door has slammed and been bolted shut..."i am simply a mental defective and you'll have to keep my secret"
coleman later rises to political stardom with garson by his side...finally we see coleman propose to her..but it is a marriage of convenience...a "merger"...a callous proposal to be sure... although i'm sure if there might not be a lot of women that would swoon at that proposal as it was delivered by coleman to garson...
there is a scene where the sun shines down on both garson and coleman...he comments on her beautiful red hair...looking as though he's seen a beautiful work of art before him... in the next frame...they are looking at each other across a table with a white cloudy sky in the background..it is quite lovely..you can see love budding before you...
there is a lovely interior shot of them at the opera...we hear the passionate music of SWAN LAKE...garson is stunning in a tight black gown...those lovely bare shoulders...colman presents her with an anniversary gift...a gorgeous necklace...she instead pulls a cheap set of beads out of her drawer that he once gave her many years before....she shows them to him...
he says..."It's morbid to bury ones heart with the dead"...she explains to him in any impassioned way...that his lost memory holds the very best parts of him...."the capacity for loving..joy of living...all buried in a space of time you've forgotten"...he tells her that in some vague way he still has hope.
coleman returns to the town that houses the sanitarium to resolve a labor dispute. the dispute is resolved and the familiar streets are once again full of cheering people. Coleman walks and walks and soon lost memories come flooding back to him...
he follows a trail of bread crumbs that his now rapidly healing mind is dropping in front of each step...soon he ends up back at the home that he and garson had once shared...
the key to the door..the key that he held onto all of these years finally finds its true place..it fits!!...the final door to his memory is opened...
garson is there of course standing behind him...saying his name...the name she once knew him by...smithy...we see a great shot of Colman's back and how his body stiffens in reaction to hearing her calling his name...
they are finally reunited in mind and heart as well as body spirit and soul....
i found this to be a charming noir...all the way from it's sympathetic beginning...to it's sweet loving happy ending....
RANDOM HARVEST also has a lovely theme throughout that will surely haunt you forever more...smiles*
BITTER* sips a flute of
Description of Random Harvest
Paula Smith (Greer Garson) is the secretary of industrialist Charles Rainier (Ronald Colman). She's also his wife, which Charles does not know. Shell-shocked during World War I, he doesn't recall his days as her husband, John Smith. Advised not to endanger Charles' fragile mental state, Paula cannot openly reveal her identity. She must find other ways to help him remember their life together.From the novel by James Hilton (Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Lost Horizon) comes one of the great sentimental romance movies. Garson's Paula, alongside her same-year triumph as Mrs. Miniver, established her persona as the strong, self-sacrificing wife. Random Harvest gathered seven Academy AwardO nominations* (including Best Picture and Colman as Best Actor) and also reaped a box-office harvest as the year's #4 hit.
The ultimate tearjerker, this 1942 romance classic directed by Mervyn LeRoy (based on a novel by James Hilton) stars Ronald Colman as a British army officer suffering from amnesia after World War I. After falling in love with and marrying a dance-hall singer (Greer Garson), Colman's happy character begins a career as a writer and doesn't seem to mind that he doesn't remember who he is. A car accident changes all that, however, causing the hero's memory to return and making him forget all about his lovely cottage and bride. LeRoy modulates the obvious suspense element in the story (for example, is Colman going to remember Greer or not?) extremely well, building ever-so-deliciously slowly toward a huge payoff. This is one of the great date movies of all time. --Tom Keogh
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