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Random Harvest (1942)
Runtime: 2 hrs 8 mins
Synopsis: Based on the novel by James Hilton (whose LOST HORIZON and GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS had already been made into profitable films), this lavish MGM show features Ronald Colman as a soldier who has lost his memory. He escapes from the hospital to find himself alone on the streets as the public cheers the... Based on the novel by James Hilton (whose LOST HORIZON and GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS had already been made into profitable films), this lavish MGM show features Ronald Colman as a soldier who has lost his memory. He escapes from the hospital to find himself alone on the streets as the public cheers the end of World War I. Showgirl Paula, played by showstopper Greer Garson, takes home the handsome amnesiac, and the two start a blissful marriage while leading a life of poverty. But when Colman is hit by a car, he regains his memory from before the war while losing all records of the events since--including his marriage to Garson. Colman resumes his life as aristocrat Charles Rainier while Garson takes on a fictitious identity to become his secretary, hoping that one day he will recognize her for his wife. This blockbuster romance directed by the great Mervyn LeRoy survives today on the heat the two stars emanate for each other. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Greer Garson, Ronald Colman, Philip Dorn, Susan Peters, Reginald Owen
Producer: Sidney Franklin
Screenwriter: Claudine West, George Froeschel, Arthur Wimperis
Composer: Herbert Stothart
DVD Info
Release:
Nov 1, 2005
DVD Features:
- Region (unknown)
- Keep Case
- Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
- Mono 1.0 English
- Mono 1.0 Frnech
Additional Release Material:
- Documentaries
- Theatrical Trailer: 1. Greer Garson Trailer Gallery
Reviews
LeRoy's schmaltzy and literary romantic melodrama, about a WWI vet who suffers from amnesia, was a huge commercial hit due to Greer Garson and Ronald Colman's acting and the fact that it was released in the midst of WWII.
Parts of it are tender and beautiful, but other parts are overplayed, maudlin, and about as subtle as a clunk on the head or a taxi across the sternum.
...it is the kind of love-found, love-lost, love-found tale that appeals to most anyone's sense of romanticism, nostalgia, and fair play.


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