Cheap Random Harvest (Video) (Ronald Colman, Greer Garson) (Mervyn LeRoy) Price

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Customer Reviews of Random Harvest

Have you seen the Carol Burnett version?
Years ago, Carol Burnett used to serve up comedic treatments of old movies, as a kid I saw her version of "Random Harvest", about a shellshocked amnesiac WWI soldier who wanders away from the mental hospital and into a romance and marriage with an amiable music hall singer. However, a chance accident has him regain his previous memory only to forget about his most recent past and marriage. Will he ever remember the girl he left behind him? As you may imagine, CB had a lot of fun bonking the soldier over and over on the head to make him go in and out of amnesia.

Well, then I read the novel by Hilton, and enjoyed that, so I was all set to love the "real" movie with Ronald Colman and Greer Garson. However, I was disappointed. Dare I say it? Boring. Yes, it just seemed to be far too long. And while I could buy Greer Garson as a secretary in the latter part of the movie, I just couldn't see her as a music hall singer (although I think she did actually start out as one).

So, my harvest was not what I hoped for. But you can go ahead to see if you think better of it.

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Class
Although I'm not a fan of romance movies, you have to admire this film about devotion and trust. Ronald Colman is a shell-shocked WWI soldier who develops amnesia and is sent to an asylum as the war closes. Escaping, he is befriended by dance hall entertainer Greer Garson, they fall in love, and as they embark on a life together he is injured in a traffic accident and forgets his years with her. Instead, he remembers all that happened up to the war, but nothing after. Garson and the audience must wait to see if he will ever remember his true love again. This story of amnesia could have seemed ridiculous or far-fetched, but in the hands of all concerned it works very well. Colman is his smooth, classy self, believable at every stage of the story. But Garson is the real treasure here, creating a subdued, warm portrait of a woman who knows she must wait, perhaps forever, to have her love returned to her. Susan Peters, as a young woman in Colman's life after Garson is very good, particularly in a scene in a church where she realizes where she really stands with him. Director Mervyn LeRoy paces the film perfectly along with the screenwriters. With the class of its stars and the MGM production values, Random Harvest stands as one of classic films' greatest love stories.

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beautiful and tender
An exquisite romance, a love that survives "for better for worse, for richer for poorer", and a wartime tragedy all make this well written melodrama very engrossing, and it stars two of the most gorgeous and popular stars of their era: Ronald Colman was one of the handsomest men that ever drew breath, with a voice of liquid gold...a voice that helped him make the most successful transition from silent films to "talkies" of any actor, and this was Greer Garson's year, as "Mrs. Miniver" was also released in 1942, which won her a Best Actress Oscar.
There are many unexpected twists to the plot, saving it from being "sappy and sentimental", and it is blessed with lovely cinematography (by Joseph Ruttenberg, who also filmed and received an Oscar for "Mrs. Miniver"), an atmospheric score by Herbert Stothart, and sensitive direction by Mervyn LeRoy.

There are some numbers connected with this film: It is # 36 in the American Film Institute's "Top Romances", it was nominated for 6 Academy Awards (Best Picture and Best Director lost to "Mrs. Miniver", and others were Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress with the excellent Susan Peters as Kitty, Screenplay, and Score), and Ronald Colman was my mother's # 1 heartthrob, as he was for so many women during those golden years of the cinema. Total running time is 2 hours and 7 minutes.
Recommended additional viewing for these two marvelous actors is of course, "Mrs. Miniver", and Ronald Colman as a Shakespearean actor in the superb psychological thriller "A Double Life".