Random Harvest

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Overview

"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

Product Details

Release Date:	01/11/2005
UPC:	0012569525122
Original Release:	1942
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Home Video
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	2:06:00
Sales rank:	17,171

Special Features

Closed Caption;2 vintage shorts from the Era: The Crime Doesn't Pay Case Don't Talk and the Pete Smith Specialty Marines in the Making; Greer Garson trailer gallery; Audio-only bonus - 1/31/44 Lux radio theater adaptation starring Colman and Garson; Languages: English & Fran?ais; Subtitles: English, Fran?ais & Espa?ol

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ronald Colman	Charles Rainier
Greer Garson	Paula
Philip Dorn	Dr. Jonathan Benet
Susan Peters	Kitty
Reginald Owen	Biffer
Edmund Gwenn	Prime Minister
Henry Travers	Dr. Simms
Margaret Wycherly	Mrs. Deventer
Bramwell Fletcher	Harrison
Arthur Margetson	Chetwynd
Jill Esmond	Lydia Chetwynd
Marta Linden	Jill, Kitty's Mother
Melville Cooper	George
Alan Napier	Julian
Pax Walker	Sheila
David Cavendish	Henry Chilcotte
Clement May	Beddoes
Norma Varden	Julia
Ann Richards	Bridget
Elisabeth Risdon	Mrs. Lloyd,Mrs. Lloyd
Charles Waldron	Mr. Lloyd
Ivan Simpson	Vicar
Rhys Williams	Sam
Henry Daniell	Heavy Man
Helena Phillips Evans	Ella, the Charwoman
Marie de Becker	Vicar's Wife
C. Montague Shaw	Julia's Husband
Madge Crane	Mrs. Sims
Lumsden Hare	Sir John
Frederic Worlock	Paula's Lawyer
Hilda Plowright	Nurse
Arthur Space	Trempitt
Ian Wolfe	Registrar
Terry Kilburn	Boy
Reginald Sheffield	Judge
Arthur Shields	Chemist
Kay Medford	Wife
Olive Blakeney	Woman
Cyril McLaglen	Policeman
Leonard Mudie	Old Man
Peter Lawford	Soldier
Lowden Adams	Clerk
George Kirby	Conductor
Major Sam Harris	Member of the House of Commons
David Clyde	Actor
Una O'Connor	Tobacconist
Alec Craig	Actor
Aubrey Mather	Sheldon
Forrester Harvey	Actor
Herbert Stothart	Composer

Technical Credits

George Froeschel

Claudine West

Arthur Wimperis

George Froeschel	Screenwriter
Claudine West	Screenwriter
Arthur Wimperis	Screenwriter
Sidney Franklin	Producer

Scene Index

Side #1 --
1. Credits [1:34]
2. Melbridge County Asylum [5:33]
3. Peace [2:48]
4. Paula's Help [4:36]
5. Talking Rather a Lot [4:22]
6. Daisy [3:10]
7. Being Someone Again [4:18]
8. Doing What's Right [4:59]
9. Wonderful Outcome [4:07]
10. My Life Began With You [4:57]
11. Newlyweds' Home [3:05]
12. You Have a Son [5:20]
13. Summoned to Liverpool [3:44]
14. Memory-Jarrying Accident [5:29]
15. Random Hall; Sad News [1:38]
16. All in the Family [4:14]
17. Invitation; I Wonder [4:04]
18. Kitty's Letters [2:53]
19. Too Wonderful for Kitty [4:19]
20. Great Man's Secretary [2:57]
21. Real Need [5:14]
22. Presumed Dead [1:46]
23. Not the One [6:20]
24. Identity Search [5:46]
25. Merger Proposal [5:45]
26. Happy Anniversary [4:55]
27. Maybe Someone You Know [5:14]
28. Strange Farewell [2:46]
29. Melbridge Memories [5:47]
30. Looking for a Cottage [4:28]

Menu

Side #1 --
Play Movie
Scene Selections
Special Features
Don't Talk
Marines in the Making
1/31/1944 Lux Radio Broadcast With Ronald Colman and Greer Garson
Garson Trailer Gallery
Languages
Spoken Languages: English
Spoken Languages: Français
Subtitles: English
Subtitles: Français
Subtitles: Español
Subtitles: Off

Editorial Reviews

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.