What makes it different from others?

Highly Overrated But Still Good

good film but with many flaws

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Ronald Colman plays a WWI vet who suffers amnesia and falls in love with lovely Greer Garson. The two marry and are immensely happy for a short time until an accident restores his pre-amnesia memories and takes away his memories of his new life. One of the all-time great romance movies. I say that as a guy who does not usually seek out these sorts of films. But when I see one that is as beautiful and touching as this, I have to give it its due. It's an exquisite-looking film with the wonderful sets and costumes you would expect from MGM during the Golden Age. The cinematography is excellent and the music fits the tone perfectly at all times. The script is soapy and sentimental to a fault but in the absolute best way. Fine supporting cast includes Henry Travers, Philip Dorn, and Susan Peters. But, of course, the stars are what makes this work above all else. Ronald Colman and Greer Garson have amazing chemistry. Both play their roles with such sensitivity and elegance. Remarkable work from two screen legends. It's just such a great film. It tugs at the heartstrings and gives you "feels" in so many ways. I've seen it many times over the years and it gets better with each viewing.

I've seen this movie about 10 times and I plan on watching it at least 10 more times! I love everything about it with the exception of one nearly unbelievable relationship. In my opinion Susan Peters and Ronald Colman being lovers is just a wee bit (actually a lot more than just a wee bit) of a stretch to begin with; good grief he was old enough to be her father, and then there is the scene with her tearfully abandoning him in the church after gazing into his eyes for a few seconds? While that scene was very well done and quite touching, IMHO it is just too unbelievable. Too bad she died about 10 years later in a tragic accident as she was quite convincing in this movie as a perky teen and a beautiful and confident young lady. In the book she dies, and I suppose throwing that into this movie instead of her simply leaving him at the altar would have required extending the movie another 20 minutes or so perhaps making the movie too long.

Possibly the ultimate weepie,Random Harvest is directed by Mervyn LeRoy,produced by Sidney Farnklin,with a screenplay by Arthur Wimperis,Claudine West and George Froeschel, is based on the novel by James Hilton and stars Ronald Coleman,Greer Garson,Susan Peters,Henry Travers and Philip Dorn.Charles Rainier(Ronald Coleman)is a World War One veteran who cannot remember anything from his past,not even who he is.He has great difficulty in speaking due to shell shock.He is a patient at an asylum when news of the wars end comes through.He goes for a walk in the grounds and escapes into the town.There he meets beautiful music hall singer Paula(Greer Garson)she nicknames him Smithy and tries to help him remember his past.He cannot but she does enable him to regain his speech and the two fall in love and marry.Paula gives birth to a daughter and all seems well until Smithy receives a job offer and goes to Liverpool for an interview.He is struck down in the street by a taxi,the fall causes his blocked memories to come back to him,but there's a catch,he now remembers nothing of Paula or their life together.Paula searches for him and eventually discovers he is now Charles Rainier and takes a job as secretary at his firm to be near him,can she make him remember her?Well grab the biggest Kleenex box you can find and some chocolates and get caught up in this to find out.Coleman(in an Oscar nominated performance)is mesmerising as both the shy and awkward Smithy and the powerful but lonely Rainier,with Garson simply enchanting as the luminous love of his life.Susan Peters also received an Oscar nomination for her role as Kitty Rainier's young fiancé. Susan could have become a star after this but she sadly became paralysed when she was injured in a hunting accident and died a few years later.One of the best romances of the studio era,Random Harvest is one that you won't forget in a hurry.

With the onset of war, the cinema was no longer primarily the bright world of spectacle and entertainment that it had been in the 1930s. Pictures of emotional depth began to have a significance and popularity they had never seen before, as they gave a chance for escapism not merely through distraction but through the hope for a brighter tomorrow.Random Harvest is a little different to the average tearjerker. Rather than building up situations dramatically and comically before opening the floodgates, we instead have a constant trickle of poignancy aching its way through the story. It's not an easy thing to get away with, especially in a picture so devoid of comic relief or other diversions, and yet it works through its delicate presentation and uncompromising sincerity.At its heart are two towering performances. Ronald Coleman by no means convinces as the young man he is supposed to be at the start of the picture, but he is right for the part because he remains true to the emotional reality of the character. In other words, he is always with the state of mind of his character at any given point, from the fragile, confused manner in the asylum, to the tranquillity he reaches in the new life he makes, to the stern professionalism he acquires when he regains his old memory. And yet he keeps a kind of consistency throughout that allows us to believe it is the same man. Greer Garson engages us at once with the realism and likability of her character. Later, much of that slow emotional ebb is played out on her face, as we see her handling the psychological blows that rain down on her character. The agony of her situation is never overstated, yet it is not brushed aside lightly either.Doing probably the finest job of his career is director Mervyn LeRoy. Normally LeRoy's pictures were fast-paced attention-grabbers, but here he is uncharacteristically slow and dignified. When Colman wanders through the crowds celebrating the war's end, the camera moves at his pace, making us share that impression of an outsider amid the clamour. There is a kind of disorienting feel as we (like Colman's character) hear things before we see them. The leisurely pace continues as his relationship with Garson blossoms, giving it a timeless, placeless and above all idyllic tone. In the latter half of the picture, LeRoy's aim seems to be to remove all distractions – long takes, little background movement, no close-ups for minor characters – focusing us entirely on Colman, Garson and Susan Peters. The style is smooth and seamless, without jolts, matching the story's gentle emotional tug.There isn't much else to say about Random Harvest. The performance of Susan Peters is almost on a par with the two leads, brilliantly handling the transition from flirty teenager to confident young woman. The score by Herbert Stothart is absolutely sublime, and never too intrusive, only surfacing to our attention when necessary. And this, in a way, is the reason it's hard to comment very specifically on this picture. The whole thing is constructed so beautifully to draw us into the lives of these two people that all detail becomes forgotten. Anything like comic relief or well-defined supporting characters, far from counterpointing the poignancy, would distract from it. It is the perfect movie to make you forget the world, and that is undoubtedly why audiences of the day loved it. Random Harvest captivates, and leaves you hoping for nothing more than the chance of a happy ending.