Overrated

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Best movie of this year hands down!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's a masterpiece. Keeps viewers engrossed as the story unfolds. Emotionally satisfying yet there are moments when we often worry about the central character Paula (played by Greer Garson). Undoutably, one of her best performances and she brings life to the character of Paula and later of Margaret Hansen. The story is fast and doesn't let the viewer loose interest. Sets, characters, sound effect, and casts are well chosen. The story is not that new, but the way it is directed and told is quite impactful. The tender yet a strong character of Greer Garson brings the story to life, quite rare in modern movies. A movie that will remain in memories forever!

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.

Superb, endearing film with Ronald Colman giving a masterful performance as Smitty, an amnesiac who finds happiness with actress-singer Greer Garson. While on a job hunt, he meets with an accident and is thrown back to his former life-Charles Rainier, a wealthy industrialist and eventual member of the British parliament. Seeing his picture in the paper, Garson becomes his faithful secretary and the two eventually marry again. (She had him declared previously legally dead after 7 years.)With success and wealth abundant, something is terribly wrong for Colman. He can't grasp at it. Susan Peters was wonderful, especially in her memorable scene where she realized that she was not the one for Colman. She well merited her best supporting actress nomination.The old adage that money isn't everything and can't buy you happiness is well proved here.

Greer was a stunner, and not always the stiff upper lip character about whom we have heard many times. When she does her "She's Ma Daisy" dance and singing, she hits the ball out of the park. I love how she's the star of the number, and center of attention. The chorus dancers kowtow to her. She leads the entire group. The military men later dancing with her are certainly having a great time.Greer, with her beautiful legs, was doing an homage to the Scots singer and entertainer Sir Harry Lauder. He had bowed legs shaped like he was riding a horse, whereas Greer's were long, sleek and feminine. She was a great dancer. I hope she did her own singing. I thought that that part was excellent. When Greer picked up the crooked walking stick, the audience just knew she was going to do a Sir Harry imitation. Sir Harry had been famous before World War One (The Great War; The War to End All Wars; which, we know by now, 2010, that there have been lots of wars since then).Reginald Owen was great, as the former boxer. Ronald Colman was just superb, even playing the mental patient. Later, when he takes over as head of his family enterprises, he plays the executive well, also. As the young thing desperately in love with Colman, Susan Peters plays her character very well.I like the end, where Smithy and Paula go back to their original home, and where of course the key fits. The beautiful white blossoms on the tree beyond the white fence are just divine.