Tonight's Movie: Random Harvest (1942) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

I have very fond memories of reading the novel RANDOM HARVEST, by James Hilton, when I was in high school.

Years later I owned the 1942 movie on VHS. I fondly recall the film, yet I had not seen it for many years before watching it this weekend thanks to the new Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

I'm glad to say, now having revisited it, that RANDOM HARVEST is just as good as my memories of it. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, it's MGM '40s moviemaking at its very best.

The plot is rather difficult to describe, yet it all makes sense when watching. Paula (Greer Garson), a touring music hall performer, comes to the rescue of an amnesiac (Ronald Colman) who has left the local smalltown asylum. The man she comes to call "Smithy" lost his memory during his service in World War I.

Eventually Smithy regains his health, though not his memory, and he and Paula fall in love and marry, despite not knowing anything about his past. They have a baby son, but when Smithy goes to Liverpool to discuss a writing job, he's hit by a taxi, and when he comes to, he's wealthy Charles Rainier, without a clue where he's been for the past few years or why he's in Liverpool.  But there's a mysterious key in his pocket...

Charles goes home to his family's estate and begins running the family business. Eventually it's revealed that his secretary, Margaret Hanson, is Paula. (Paula was Margaret's stage name.) After her husband went missing and her baby boy died, Margaret/Paula chanced to see Charles's photo in a publication and obtained the job as his secretary.

Kitty Chilcet (Susan Peters), a young girl who's a relative's stepdaughter, loves Charles for many years and he eventually proposes, but when they're planning their wedding she suddenly intuitively realizes he's in love with someone else and breaks off the engagement.

There's still much plot to go in the film's 127 minutes, but I'll leave it there, using the above to hopefully whet viewers' appetites and curiosity to see what happens next. There's more, a lot more...and it's all great stuff.

I recall reading years ago that RANDOM HARVEST starred the two most beautiful voices in Hollywood, and I don't know that I'd disagree. Both Colman and Garson offer beautiful performances and completely sell a story which in other hands might seem absurd. They have wonderful chemistry, and this film is some of their best work.

It's interesting that James Hilton stories were significant in the careers of both Garson and Colman. Garson's big Hollywood break came in Hilton's GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS (1939), and one of Colman's very best films was Frank Capra's filming of Hilton's LOST HORIZON (1937).

Colman was nominated for Best Actor for RANDOM HARVEST, with Peters nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Garson wasn't nominated, but ironically she was the one of the three who took home the Academy Award that year -- for MRS. MINIVER (1942).

Peters, who lost to Teresa Wright of MRS. MINIVER, does an excellent job, conveying Kitty's growth from a happy-go-lucky young girl to a more mature woman whose love for Charles deepens with each passing year. 

The wordless moments where Kitty watches Charles in the church and suddenly realizes their relationship isn't going to work out is really well done, as a series of expressions cross her face, ultimately showing a devastated woman.

RANDOM HARVEST features a fine cast including Reginald Owen, Henry Travers, Rhys Williams, Aubrey Mather, Margaret Wycherly, Alan Napier, and Melville Cooper, to name just a few. Philip Dorn, who also starred that year in REUNION IN FRANCE (1942), plays "Smithy's" doctor, who falls himself for Margaret/Paula.

The movie was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and filmed in black and white by Joseph Ruttenberg.

Although nominated for seven Oscars, also including Picture and Director, it didn't win any; however, if one looks at the other nominees, competition was pretty incredible that year; for instance, solely looking at the competition for Peters and Wright, the other nominees were Agnes Moorehead in THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942), Gladys Cooper for NOW, VOYAGER (1942), and Dame May Whitty for MRS. MINIVER. The cliched saying "It's an honor just to be nominated" was never more true.

The Blu-ray print and sound quality are both superb. This is a truly outstanding release.

Extras include the 22-minute Crime Does Not Pay short DON'T TALK (1942) with an interesting cast including Donald Douglas, Barry Nelson, James Millican, Arthur Space, and James Warren, directed by Joseph M. Newman; the Pete Smith Specialty MARINES IN THE MAKING (1942); the trailer; and a January 1944 Lux Radio Theater broadcast of RANDOM HARVEST starring Garson, Colman, and Joan Lorring.

Both the disc and the film are highly recommended.

Related posts: A Visit to Santa Barbara Cemetery (Ronald Colman); A Visit to the Forest Lawn Museum (Susan Peters).

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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