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Random Harvest (1942)
In director Mervyn LeRoy's romantic drama adapted from
James Hilton's 1941 novel - MGM's sentimental, moving melodramatic
romance with an implausible and contrived plot about an amnesia victim
who forgot the woman he loved and married:
- in the opening scene (voice-over): "Our story
takes you down this shadowed path to a remote and guarded building
in the English Midlands, Melbridge County Asylum. Grimly proud
of its new military wing, which barely suffices in this autumn
of 1918 to house the shattered minds of the war that was to end
war"
- in 1917, a British soldier
(later revealed to be wealthy British aristocrat Charles Rainier
(Ronald Colman)) sustained a shell-shocked head injury during WWI:
("When he returned to consciousness in a German hospital, he could remember
nothing at all of his past life. He had no name, he had no family
with whom he could correspond"); the mute amnesiac was institutionalized
at the Melbridge County Asylum and re-named John 'Smith' (or "Smithy");
during the celebration of the Armistice in November of 1918, he walked
out unnoticed from the county asylum
Opening Prologue
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"Smith" (Ronald
Colman) at Melbridge County Asylum
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Walking Out of Asylum Unnoticed
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- in a shop in Melbridge, he met show-girl singer/performer
Paula Ridgeway (Greer Garson) (her stage name) who realized he
was a military hero from the asylum, but disoriented, semi-mute
and in need of help; she led him to a local pub, the Melbridge
Arms, and then to a local theater where her troupe was performing;
she adopted the nickname "Smithy" for him; she was stunned
when he told her: "I don't even know who I am"; as he
sat in her dressing room, she was called to the stage and sang "Daisy" while
wearing a kilt
- after her show when he appeared ill, Paula took him
to a rented room above the town's pub; she was forced to suggest
that "Smithy" return to the asylum: "You need care,
and you need doctors that understand your case. I feel dreadful about
it, but it's for your sake", but then she had a change of heart
and vowed to take him to a "country place" in the west
country of Devon to recuperate: "We'll find some quiet place
where you can rest and get fit"; when they arrived, she exclaimed: "It's
the end of the world. Lonely and lovely"; by pretending that
they were an engaged couple, Paula rented two adjoining rooms for
them in a country inn managed by Mrs. Deventer (Margaret Wycherly)
- "Smithy" and Paula became engaged
when he proposed to her during a picnic in the countryside;
eventually, he found the courage to ask her to marry him in an idyllic
scene under a tree where they shared a picnic: Smithy: "Paula,
it's a lot of nerve, but, I'm - I've fallen in love with you." Paula: "No
you haven't. You're just being a gentleman." Smithy: "No,
I'm nothing of the sort. I'm asking you to marry me on a check for
two guineas." Paula: "Oh, Smithy, don't ask me, please.
I might take you up on it. I'm just that shameless...I've run after
you from the very beginning and now I, I've never let you out of
- "Smithy: "Never do it, Paula...Never leave me out of your sight. Never again." Paula:
(uncertain) "Smithy, you do mean it? You do want it? Really?" Smithy:
(assuring) "More than anything else in the world. My life began
with you. I can't imagine the future without you." Paula: (joking) "Oh,
I better say 'yes' quickly, before you change your mind. It's yes,
darling." He relaxed back onto the ground with his arms outstretched: "Oh,
oh, now, now, I can relax!", but she reminded him that they
should properly seal their engagement with a kiss: "Smithy...But,
darling, you proposed to me, and I've accepted you...Smithy, do I
always have to take the initiative? You're supposed to kiss me, darling." He
took her in his arms: "Oh, my..."
- after Paula was happily married to amnesiac Smith
(or "Smithy"), they moved into a small rented cottage (with
a white picket fence with a squeaky front gate) in Devon where he
took up writing as a profession; they lived together for about three
years and had a baby son in November of 1920
- almost immediately after the birth, before
a short overnight trip to Liverpool to apply and interview for
a permanent job at the Mercury newspaper,
Smithy left Paula with a gift - a glass-bead necklace ("the
color of her eyes")
- a sudden and jarring shock came to Smithy's head
from a taxi-cab accident as he crossed the street and slipped in
the mud; the incident caused him to regain his former memory/life
from three years earlier as Charles Rainier, and to entirely forget
Paula and their life together; it was his second case of amnesia
in just a few years
- after the accident, Charles confusedly returned by
train to his former home (an estate at Random Hall, North Random,
Surrey), where he learned that his father had just died (and the
funeral was held that day) and his siblings were all in attendance
and expecting their inheritance; he was regarded as a "bad penny"
for his inopportune and unexpected appearance after three years - without
any recollection ("Those three years are a complete blank to me.
I don't know what I've done, where I've been. I found a little money
in my pocket and this key")
- 15 year-old teenaged Kitty Chilcet (Susan Peters)
- Charles' step-niece (the daughter of his sister Jill's (Marta Linden)
new husband Henry Chilcet (David Cavendish)) was particularly impressed
and infatuated by Charles, and immediately made her intentions known
that she would marry Charles some day after she came of age; after
graduating from college (the transition of time was conveyed through
changing pictures), the young Kitty continued to pursue Charles for
matrimony
Returning to His Life as Charles Rainier
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Regaining Identity as Charles - Forgetting His
Life as Smithy
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- Charles inherited the house and began to run the
family business, and soon became famous as "the Industrial
Prince of England" in his family's industrial factory
- in the meantime, Paula had tracked him down and re-entered
his life as Margaret Hanson (her real name) - and became his devoted
secretary; it was a memorable scene of her first entrance into his office, but
he did not give any indication that he had known her in his past;
she had applied for the job two years earlier when she saw his picture
in a magazine with the title "Industrial Prince of England";
she attempted to jog his memory about Melbridge, but to no avail
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Astonishing Revelation: Paula Was Charles' Private
Secretary
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- they shared a brief scene discussing her past (that
she had been married before and had a little child who died) -
without Paula revealing her identity of their past life together
as a married couple
- when Paula sought the advice of Dr. Jonathan Benet
(Philip Dorn), she begged: "I want him as he was. I want his
love"; she was strongly urged to keep their past lives a secret:
("You can risk it, if you wish. I hope you won't...If the sight
of you did nothing to restore his memory, what can words do?...the
impetus must come from within. It can't be forced on him from outside....I
can only offer you that frail hope that someday the miracle will
happen and he'll come back to you, not as Charles Rainier, but as...Smithy");
Paula persistently but patiently attempted to rekindle their relationship
which he couldn't remember - she was hoping for the day he would
unlock his memory, but it didn't seem imminent
- in a revelatory sequence, Charles and his fiancee
Kitty, who were about to be married in just a few days, met in the
chapel to pick out a hymn for their ceremony; Charles' past was triggered
by his partial and distant memory of the hymn ‘O Perfect Love’ being
considered - it was the same hymn played at Smithy's wedding
three years earlier; when he became dreamy, Kitty sensed that he
was distant and loved someone else, she called off their wedding:
("I've been uncertain. Almost from the beginning. Now I'm sure.
It's no use, is it? I've always known it. Really. I was grasping
selfishly at my own happiness. Because you could make me perfectly
happy. If I were selfish enough not to care or stupid enough not
to know....That I'm not the one. Let's be honest about it....Charles,
you looked at me just now as if I were a stranger. An intrusive stranger.
Trying to take the place of someone else....I know it sounds absurd,
but let me say it. Sometimes, especially when we've been closest,
I've had a curious feeling that I remind you of someone else. Someone
you once knew"); she immediately left to travel the world (Luxor
Egypt) with her mother
- depressed by his cancelled marriage, Charles abruptly
packed a bag and left for Liverpool to try to find clues to his past
(for the three-year period of time from the war until he woke up
in Liverpool); his only possession from the night of the cab accident
was his long-treasured latch-key from his pocket: ("It was from
Liverpool he came that night, that he came back from the dead, as
you might say"); Paula traveled to Liverpool to speak to Charles,
who admitted his search was again futile: "I came back here
at that time [12 years earlier] hoping to stumble on the trail of
my past, but I failed then and I've failed now"; she attempted
to jog his memory by suggesting elements of his past life, but nothing
turned out to be familiar; he called himself: "A psychological
defective"
- after being elected to a high position in Parliament,
he turned to Paula and asked her for marriage "in friendship" -
a love-less business "merger" in name only; he proposed:
("I need your help in my parliamentary life....You and I are
in the same boat, Miss Hanson. We're both ghost-ridden. That sounds
a bit dramatic, but I think it expresses it. We are prisoners of
our past....What if we were to pool our loneliness and give each
other what little we have to give: Support, friendship? I'm proposing
marriage, Miss Hanson. Or should I call it a merger?...You need have
no fear that I would make any emotional demands upon you. I have
only sincere friendship to offer. I won't ask any more from you");
after some brief thought, she agreed, but felt unfulfilled after
three years of marriage to him
- in the final memorable revelatory scene set in Melbridge,
Charles was attending to a strike at the Melbridge Cable Works; afterwards,
he retraced his steps, revisiting places he was semi-familiar with
-- the Melbridge Arms pub, a tobacconist shop, and the asylum's entrance;
he also approached a familiar-looking old cottage (his old rented
home) after going through the squeaky gate and blossoming bough -
he used his latch-key to open the front door; behind him at the gate,
his devoted and faithful secretary Margaret Hanson/Paula (with tear-stained
cheeks), who was on holiday in Devon and preparing to leave on a
cruise, softly called out to him at the door: ("Smithy? Oh,
Smithy! Oh, darling"); he unraveled the clue and recognized
her voice - he was jarred into remembering his former life being
married to her - he turned around, softly responded "Paula!" to
his long-lost love, and they came together to embrace and kiss as
the music built to a crescendo -- and a fade to black as the film
ended
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Regaining His Memory about Paula
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'Paula Ridgeway'
(Greer Garson)
Paula Performing "Daisy"
Devon Picnic Marriage Proposal Scene - Smithy and Paula
Bride Paula
Newlyweds in Front of a Small Cottage in Devon
Accident in Liverpool - Causing a 2nd Case of Amnesia
Kitty Chilcet (Susan Peters) - Charles' Adoring Step-Niece
Kitty - In Love with Charles
Kitty - Charles' Fiancee
A Distant Memory (of His Previous Marriage) Triggered by
a Hymn
Kitty - The Marriage Called Off
A Proposed Marriage "Merger" with Paula
At the Front Gate
Opening Front Door with Latch-Key
"Smithy? Oh, Smithy! Oh, Darling" - Paula Observing
From Behind
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