Romancefest 23: Random Harvest

RANDOM HARVEST has a plot that is based on a pretty far-fetched contrivance that has been used and reused throughout narrative history to keep lovers apart, especially in the art form known as “soap operas” – amnesia.

Ronald Colman stars as a shell schocked veteran of the first World War, recovering in a mental institution. As part of his condition, he’s lost his memory and doesn’t know who he is or where he came from. He’s also hesitant to talk, though he can if he has to. As the movie opens, he’s presented with a hopeful elderly couple who think he might be their son. Both the couple and Colman end up disappointed. No such luck.

As the small town surrounding the mental institution celebrates the end of the first World War, Colman slips out of the hospital and runs into Paula (Greer Garson) on the street. She’s beautiful and empathetic and can tell that Colman isn’t quite all there. Her protective instinct kicks in, and she takes him to a local pub for some brandy (to take the edge off) and then to a musical comedy show that she performs in as a singing and dancing actress.

From here, their romance blooms, and Colman’s able to put together a semblance of a quiet life and build a little family as his post traumatic stress fades into the background and he adjusts to every day life.

There’s a plot twist involving Colman’s character regaining his memory and returning to his previous life, forgetting everything of his life with Paula, as Paula attempts to insert herself back into his life. But, I don’t want to go into too much detail, because the way the melodrama works depends on the viewer being pulled this way and that by the plot revelations.

Anyway, why does any of this work? It’s mostly thanks to the performances of Colman and Garson. Colman is incredibly touching as the shell shocked veteran, especially in the opening series of scenes as he slowly begins to open up to Garson’s character. His eyes dart around as if searching her face for the truth – is she potential trouble, or is she a friend? He speaks in halting sentences, carefully choosing each word as if the wrong one might cause everything to go wrong. He’s able to do all of this realistically and avoids becoming a simpering sympathy-hog. Reading about the movie, I found out Colman really fought in the first World War, so I like to think he’s bringing his personal experience to the role.

Garson also gains the audience’s sympathy, despite the contrivances of the plot, because she is so convincingly kind-hearted. Her big scenes also work off of the good will of the first half of the movie – it’s almost as if Colman sets up the first half of the movie so Garson can effectively carry off the second half of the movie.

Mervyn LeRoy directed this film, and I was glad to see that it was visually striking in many ways. LeRoy produced some of the biggest, most beautiful films of MGM’s glory days (WIZARD OF OZ and GONE WITH THE WIND) but some of his later efforts seemed stilted (THE BAD SEED). With RANDOM HARVEST he’s still on the upswing.