Random Harvest

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Product Details

Director : Mervyn LeRoy
Actor : Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, Philip Dorn, Susan Peters, Henry Travers
Format : Import, NTSC
Binding : VHS Tape
EAN : 9786301978538
Product Group : Video
Release Date : 1994-06-30
UPC : 027616096135

ASIN : 6301978536

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Editorial Reviews

From 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

Customer Reviews

Based on a novel by James Hilton (2006-11-23)

am being simple in my description but it is the action and interaction of the character that make the movie, not really the story line. John 'Smithy' Smith (Ronald Colman) not his real name wakes up in an asylum with no memory of who is. One day the door is left open and he wonders out or escapes. A dancer Paula Ridgeway (Greer Garson) spots him and eventually takes him in like a lost puppy. They eventually set-up house in a cottage in the country and have a son. He goes to a new job in Liverpool. Then it happens; he is hit by a truck and now has no memory of the three lost years as the happy and caring Smithy. He realizes he is Charles Rainier the heir of an industry and a good size house. He also has a niece Kitty Chilcet (Susan Peters) that really is not related, who is growing up fast with matrimony on her mind. Will he marry Kitty? Will he (or we) ever see Paula again? Is Smithy dead? The same actors are found in other Hilton stories; such as Ronald Colman in "Lost Horizon" (1937), and Greer Garson in "Mrs. Miniver" (1942). Greer was up for the Best Actress Oscar for this movie. However she got it for "Mrs. Miniver" and rthe rules say that you can only have one award per year. Susan Peters was on the way up in the movies when she had an accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down. She died 10 years later at the age of 31.

Classic Tear-Jerker Still Leaves You With Wet Kleenex (2005-03-06)

One of the all time great four hanky tearjerkers, "Random Harvest" (1942) is a bittersweet tale of love and sacrifice, set against that mythical backdrop of jolly ol' Britain that never was. It stars Ronald Colman as Charles Rainier, a war veteran who is suffering from amnesia. Paula Ridgway (Greer Garson) is the unfortunate dance-hall hostess who falls in love and marries Charles - renamed John Smith. But true love never runs a straight course and John and Paula's brief chance at divine happiness is overturned when a car accident jogs John's memory. He returns to the life he once knew, oblivious that his new and fragile world with Paula ever existed.

Colman's gentlemanly congeniality, as always, astounds with genuine canter and frank grace and maturity - qualities soarly lacking from the leading men of today's cinema. Garson is charming; blowing in as a summer's breeze and just as passionate, divine and charming as Colman. Director Mervyn LeRoy modulates each plot point and circumstance with subtle panache and quiet rectitude for his subject matter. There's never a point at which the melodrama becomes cheap, exploitive or overwrought. Ah, but the years may pass and memories fade, but "Random Harvest" has proven to be that rarest of eternal cinematic treasures - genuine and outstanding in every way.

Warner Home Video delivers a marvelous DVD transfer. The gray scale has been impeccably rendered with fine tonality and attention to fine detail. The picture is generally sharp and pleasing on the eyes. Blacks are very rich, deep and solid. Whites are on the whole clean. Occasionally one will detect a note of edge enhancement and the odd age related artifact, but these are bare quibbling on an otherwise flawless presentation. The audio is mono and very nicely balanced. A hint of background hiss is detected in quiescent scenes, but again, for a film element that is pushing 70 plus years, there's really nothing to complain about here. Two vintage short subjects, a trailer gallery and audio only broadcast of the film round out the extras. A very nicely put together trip down memory lane from the good people over at Warner Brothers. Top marks and highly recommended!

beautiful and tender (2004-05-10)

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".

Does anyone remember Greer Garson and Ronald Colman? (2004-05-09)

This is an old black and white (1942), but that's all we had at one time. It was more than a generation ago--it was the greatest generation ago.

It was the end of the First World War, and the "asylum" for war shell shock cases in Great Britain was full of problems. John Smith was only one of them, He lost his memory due to the horror of war, and escaped the hospital in the excitement of war's end.

Paula (Greer Garson) gave his life meaning again, and then, on a trip to Liverpool, he was hit by a car and lost it once more. But, unfortunately, he lost that which he had most recently lived through--the current three years--and remembered the rest.

There are flaws in the science of memory loss, but the story is good nonetheless.

The story is Garson's effort to help him regain his memory and his lost love.

Colman and Garson were once both great actors--the first rank. This movie was a good one. No filthy language to prop it up, or gutter histrionics, but--strangely enough--they managed to tell the story anyway, in spite of all those restraints.

Once, we appreciated stories like these. Today's audience probably thinks it "corny." I wish we had more of them, but I am, admittedly, a dinosaur.

Joseph (Joe) Pierreauthor of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenanceand other books

Pass the hankie! (2004-04-18)

This wonderful,extremely romantic movie was made for anyone who is a romanticist at heart.I cannot get enough of Ronald Colman's voice..I can't think of another actor whose inflections are so unique.The movie itself is wonderfully acted,and although I am not a huge fan of Ms.Garson,she matches Mr.Colman perfectly.I can't understand why it isn't out on DVD yet!! C'mon,you guys!!

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