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> Random Harvest |
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Staring:
Ronald Colman,
Greer Garson,
Philip Dorn,
Susan Peters,
Henry Travers
Director:
Mervyn LeRoy
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $7.99
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 9780790747774
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed
ISBN: 0790747774
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2005-01-11
Running Time: 126
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1942-02-28 |
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Product Description
The wife of a shell-shocked soldier returning to civilian life must allow him to remember their marriage on his own.
Amazon.com
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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A beautiful, classic gem., 2010-08-06
If you have never seen this romantic, sentimental classic - you must. Greer Garson is resplendant!
Myth at work, 2010-05-19
Random Harvest is a very strange film: it ought not to work at all, but it does. The reason is that it is a kind of archetypal myth (there are Arab and Hindu stories of men suddenly losing twenty years and then recovering their original lives again in the blink of an eye) with James Hilton using memory loss (twice) here as the vehicle for the man's story. It is linked with another archetypal myth, the woman's story, a kind of Eurydice or Psyche story of her seeking Orpheus to redeem him (and her) as well -- his redemption is simultaneously her redemption. She is prepared to sacrifice everything just so he will recognize her for who she really is, even though he is staring her right in the face. The moment he sees her for who she really is, is the moment he will get his memory back, and vice versa. This is the secret of the film's power, which overrides the complete absurdity of the plot. The myth speaks to everyone who wants to be seen for who they are, or who were once seen as who they are, by someone they love, but somehow that act of being seeing as who one really is by the other, that look of recognition, has become lost over the years.
This is in another sense the apotheosis of the Hollywood obsession with the "face" -- the film keeps recurring to Garson's face as if somehow her face is the key to his self-recognition (which of course it is, and is the reason why the last shot of the film is of her face).
All kinds of silly things and implausibilities riddle the film but none of it matters. The flimsiness of the "British" Hollywood world actually adds to the mythic flavour of the film -- the fake cottage, the absurd Random Hall, the foggy streets, the stock British character actors -- it is an unreal world. On the other hand, some of the reviews here make more implausibilities than there actually are. For example, there is no reason why Colman shouldn't be older at the beginning of the film -- he's a captain (or a major) in the army.
Perhaps the most brilliant moments in the film are in the first ten minutes, which has a kind of German expressionist feel about it, and a beautiful rhythm. The absurdity of Smith's wartime terror mingling with the arrival of its exact opposite, the armistice, is brilliantly ironic, and deftly orchestrated. A special mention should be made of the sound -- Herbert Stothard's work, again especially at the beginning, is astonishing, it carries the plot along with its layering of remembered sound (note at the end when Smith's memory begins to come back, how the tunes recur very faintly). And Colman's acting in the early scenes is the best he ever did (the scene with the possible parents is devastating), though one does fondly recall the moment in Lost Horizon when Robert Conway loses his faith in the truth of Shangri-La. Colman was one of the one or two best screen actors -- as a screen actor -- there has ever been, because his emotional truth reads so clearly on screen. Similarly, Garson's early scenes are her best -- she has a kind of believable sweetness that goes away as she becomes the stiff-upper-lip sufferer. Her best scene is the one with him in the dressing room -- she just radiates openness and believability. She makes one believe that she's a kind of "ready-for-anything" person, and this helps propel us through a whole pile of succeeding improbabilities.
I suppose the hardest thing to believe in the film is that Greer Garson's character couldn't have had a stage career (she is very, very good in her song and dance number). But that is part of the subtlety of the film: there is a sense in which everyone's life is not quite working the second time around, and so it might be that she couldn't bring that fizzy innocence to the stage a second time. Another example of great acting in the film is the way in which Colman gives us a sense that though he becomes terribly successful and seemingly happy, he too is crippled. It is done with extreme subtlety -- the scene with Kitty where he looks blankly at her is amazingly done. It is one of the best things about the movie that he is matched in these scenes by Susan Peters in quality. That everything went wrong for her is such a tragedy.
A strange, great, deep, haunting film, that ought to be stupid sentimental trash, but isn't. It is also an extraordinary testament to the screenwriters (all three of them!) that they could make a streamlined, powerful, story out of a really second-rate novel (contrary to other opinions). It is a complete disaster. The original novel wanders around and is endless, told at second hand by a completely contrived narrator. The novel is full of opinions about whatever the author is interested in on any subject that is of passing interest. The arrival of World War II is contrived to arrive on the last page of the novel -- at exactly the same moment as the great revelation -- as if we needed that (ah, England has found its memory again!). Ridiculous tripe. The movie starts on page 197 of my copy of the novel (where the Melbury story begins). And then movie magic strikes.....
Random Harvest, 2010-04-15
A truly great romantic film, one that you can, and will want to, watch frequently. Was ranked recently in the "top romantic movies of all time" by some magazine, in the top fifty. This soft-hearted viewer puts it in the top five. No finer duo than Ronald Colman and Greer Garson ever played such leads. The inclusion of the radio broadcast on the DVD is very nice. Another note: Recommend you see the movie before reading the novel, and then reading James Hilton's fine book, you will see what an extremely interesting and effective adaptation the screenplay was.
Random Harvest, 2010-06-02
This one of the great love stories. But you have to understand that the greatness of the story has little to do with Ronald Coleman's character. Paula Ridgeway is one of the great heroines of all time. Every man should want a woman to love him the way Paula Ridgeway loves Ronald Coleman's character.
a lovely touching bittersweet story of lost and found love...., 2010-06-03
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*
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