RANDOM HARVEST (1942)

– A Review –

Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman

This movie is a sappy, black and white, romantic gaga-fest.  It is utterly unbelievable and ridiculous.

That’s what people might want you to think.  And it’s totally true.

But that shouldn’t preclude you from enjoying it.  This movie was made in the “golden age.”  It was a time of movie-making that gave people something akin to a delicious, full-blooded, five-course meal.  Maybe it’s not super subtle.  Maybe it’s not ironic or full of social commentary.  Maybe it has a sweet reveal at the end.

But that’s what I love about this film!  It is dynamically fantastic in the treatment of the plot.  Here it is, and I’ll try not to spoil anything:

Soldier in WWI is knocked unconscious from shelling in the trenches.  He wakes up in an asylum and can’t remember who he is.  He escapes the hospital and wanders about town during the armistice celebrations.  He gets rescued by a saloon dancer (HOT!) and she takes care of him.  They fall in love, get married and have a baby, all the while trying to find out who he was, but to no avail.  He goes into town to look for work and gets hit by a car.

Now he can’t remember the previous three years with his wife and child, but everything before that is suddenly clear.  Good thing, because he was originally rich as all get out.  So now his rich family wants him to find a nice girl and get into politics.  He doesn’t want to because deep down he knows he’s in love, but he doesn’t really know it, right?

Meanwhile…his wife goes looking for him, and finds him.  But she can’t bring herself to confront him, for fear of freaking him out!  Like the truth will cause his brain to melt and him to, I don’t know, hate her or something.  So she bides her time, and [Spoiler] becomes his secretary.  The reveal there is awesome.  I’m sure there were gasps in the theater.

I can’t tell you the rest, except that it’s completely awesome.

This movie is terrific.  The main actors are at their charmingest.  Honestly, they were super great.  The quality of movie making then was tight and bold.  The downside of the old-timey movie studio system was rigid sameness and little creative risk-taking.  However, the upside was movies like these.  They work, period.

I urge you to check it out.  If you do, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.  I can declare thus because the people who are brave enough to venture forth are brave enough to like old, sappy movies.

Searching for answers.