Here is my new film on the wonderful Random Harvest, I hope you enjoy.
I fell in love with Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman when I was young boy. My mother and I would watch all the old movies together in the mid 1950s. I still find their work to be wonderful. There is only one Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman. Little did I know that as a young boy that years later I would be invited to the house he lived in when he made this movie. The story is I got to experience a piece of old Hollywood in 1988 when I went to Ronald Coleman’s Hollywood Hills home. The home in the spanish revival had an internal courtyard with a fountain and the original tennis court that many Hollywood stars played on. The story is my husband was the architect for the owner who purchased the home in 1988 and he did work in the home. We were invited to his wedding that was held at the home. Their were valets at the bottom of the hill who took our car and then drove us up to the house. I remember walking in the courtyard and in the library and on the tennis court and thinking about all the Hollywood stars that he and his wife entertained there. I hope you enjoy my tribute to these great stars and this wonderful movie.
Songs, love is a many splendored thing Performed By Matt Monro Song, You’ll Never Walk Alone, Performed By Claramae Turner , From Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.
Click here to see my gallery of images from the film.
From Wikipedia,
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 film stars Ronald Colman as a shellshocked, amnesiac World War I veteran, and Greer Garson as his love interest. They fall in love and marry, renting a small cottage “Smithy,” as Paula calls him, discovers he has some literary talent. Paula remains home with their newborn son while Smithy goes to Liverpool for a job interview with a newspaper. He is struck by a taxi. When he regains consciousness, his past memory is restored, but his life with Paula is now forgotten. He is Charles Rainier, the son of a wealthy businessman. None of his meager possessions, including a key, provide any clue about where he has been. Charles One day, she sees Charles’ picture and story in a magazine. Paula becomes his executive assistant under her real name, Margaret Hanson, hoping that her presence will jog his memory. Dr. Jonathan Benet, who works at the Melbridge asylum, is her confidant and admirer. He warns her that revealing her identity would only cause Charles to resent her. Margaret joins Charles in Liverpool, where he is trying one last time to piece together his lost years. They recover his old suitcase from a hotel’s lost and found, but he recognizes nothing. Charles is approached to stand for Parliament. After his election, in which Margaret provides invaluable assistance, he feels the need for a wife in his new role. He proposes to her, more as a business proposition than a romantic one, and she accepts. They become an ideal couple, at least to all outward appearances, with Margaret a perfect society hostess. They discuss his lost past, and she tells him of her own lost love, without revealing that it is him. He hopes their life together can fill the void they both feel. After three years of marriage, she decides to take an extended solo vacation abroad. Before her liner sails, she revisits the village where she and Smithy lived. Charles is summoned to mediate a strike at the Melbridge Cable Works. After the successful negotiation, he walks through the town, and the surroundings and celebrations begin to unlock his memories, leading him to the nearby village and the cottage he and Paula shared. Hesitantly, he tries the old key he kept; it unlocks the door. Margaret, about to leave for her boat, makes a casual remark to the innkeeper about her predecessor, Mrs. Deventer. The innkeeper tells her that a gentleman just that morning had inquired about Mrs. Deventer, and had mentioned that he used to rent a cottage near a church. Margaret hurries to the cottage and finds Charles at the front door. She tentatively calls out “Smithy?” Charles turns and recognises her. He rushes to embrace her, calling her Paula.
Cast Ronald Colman as Charles Rainier/”Smithy” Greer Garson as “Paula Ridgeway”/Margaret Hanson Philip Dorn as Dr. Jonathan Benet Susan Peters as Kitty Chilcet Henry Travers as Dr. Sims Reginald Owen as Biffer Bramwell Fletcher as Harrison Rhys Williams as Sam Una O’Connor as Tobacco Shopkeeper Aubrey Mather as Sheldon Margaret Wycherly as Mrs. Deventer Arthur Margetson as Chetwynd Rainier Directed by Mervyn LeRoy Screenplay by Arthur Wimperis George Froeschel Claudine West
Based on Random Harvest 1941 novel by James Hilton
Produced by Sidney Franklin
Cinematography Joseph Ruttenberg
Edited by Harold F. Kress
Music by Herbert Stothart