Random Harvest (1942) on Netflix
An unidentified World War I soldier with no memory is held in an asylum as John Smith. Music hall singer Paula Ridgeway takes him in, and they marry.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.9/109,458 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Trailer
Plot summary
Late in World War I, a British officer gassed in the trenches who remembers nothing is kept in an asylum under the name John Smith. When the fighting stops and the staff go off to celebrate, he walks out. In Melbridge he is befriended by Paula Ridgeway, a music hall singer, who takes him into her traveling theatrical troupe. To keep him from drawing attention, she moves him to a quiet Devon village, where they fall in love, marry, rent a cottage and have a son. Paula calls him Smithy, and he has a talent for writing. He goes to Liverpool alone for a newspaper interview, and a taxi hits him. His old life as the wealthy Charles Rainier returns to him, and his years with Paula are gone.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Random Harvest (1942)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film played for a record 11 weeks at Radio City Music Hall in New York, a record that lasted until at least the 1960s.
- In 1973 an episode of The Carol Burnett Show featured a spoof of the film called 'Rancid Harvest', with Carol Burnett in Greer Garson's role and Harvey Korman in Ronald Colman's.
- The 1980 blockbuster Pakistani film Bandish, starring Shabnam and Nadeem, was also inspired by this film, and its music, composed by Robin Ghosh, went on to become some of the most renowned melodies of the decade in Pakistan.
- Several Indian films were influenced by this film: the Bengali film Harano Sur (1957), the Tamil film Amara Deepam (1956), the Hindi film Amar Deep (1958) and Ek Musafir Ek Hasina (1962).
SPOILER
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, so the movie had to take a very different approach to the story.
