Random Harvest
Random Harvest is a 1942 American romantic drama film based on the 1941 James Hilton novel of the same title, directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Claudine West, George Froeschel, and Arthur Wimperis adapted the novel for the screen, and received an Academy Award nomination. The novel keeps the true identity of Paula/Margaret a secret until the very end, something that would have been impossible in a film, where characters’ faces must be seen. This meant that the movie had to take a very different approach to the story. The film stars Ronald Colman as a shellshocked, amnesiac World War I veteran, and Greer Garson as his love interest.
Plot
In the last days of the First World War, a British officer who had been gassed in the trenches and lost his memory is confined to an English asylum as "John Smith", an unidentified inmate. On the day the war ends, the asylum's gatekeepers abandon their posts to join the celebration in the nearby Midlands town of Melbridge, and Smith wanders away.
Cast
- Alan Napier
- Ann Richards
- Arthur Margetson
- Arthur Shields
- Arthur Space
- Aubrey Mather
- Bramwell Fletcher
- Charles Bennett
- Charles Waldron
- Edward Fielding
- Elisabeth Risdon
- Frederick Worlock
- Greer Garson
- Henry Travers
- Ian Wolfe
- Ivan Simpson
- Jill Esmond
- Lumsden Hare
- Margaret Wycherly
- Melville Cooper
- Norma Varden
- Olive Blakeney
- Philip Dorn
- Reginald Owen
- Rhys Williams
- Ronald Colman
- Susan Peters
- Una O'Connor