Hesitantly, he tries the old key he kept, and finds that it unlocks the door. 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. When Charles sees her off at the train station, he is summoned to mediate a strike at the Melbridge Cable Works. Before her liner sails, she revisits the village where she and Smithy lived. Miserable, Margaret decides to take an extended solo vacation abroad.
He hopes their life together can fill the void they both feel. In a moment of reflection, they discuss his lost past, and she tells him of her own lost love, without revealing that it is Charles. They become an ideal couple, at least to all outward appearances, with Margaret a perfect society hostess. He proposes to her, more as a business proposition than a romantic one, and she accepts. After his election, in which Margaret provides invaluable assistance, he feels the need for a wife in his new role. They recover his suitcase from a hotel, but he recognizes nothing.Ĭharles is approached to stand for Parliament. Margaret joins Charles in Liverpool, where he is trying one last time to piece together his lost years. Kitty, realizing that Charles still loves someone else, sadly breaks off the engagement. However, a hymn that Kitty is considering for their upcoming wedding triggers a vague memory in Charles. Jonathan Benet, warns her that revealing her identity would only cause Charles to resent her.Īs Kitty grows up, she sends Charles love letters, and they become engaged. Paula gets hired as his executive assistant, calling herself Margaret Hanson (Paula being her stage name), hoping that her presence will jog his memory. One day, she sees Charles' picture and story in a magazine. Their son died as an infant, and she now works as a secretary. After a few years, a newspaper touts him as the "Industrial Prince of England". Charles wants to return to college, but the mismanaged family business needs him, and he puts off his own desires to safeguard the jobs of his many employees and restore the family fortune. Kitty, the stepdaughter of one of Charles' siblings, becomes infatuated with her "uncle". None of his meager possessions, including a key, provide any clue about where he has been.Ĭharles returns home on the day of his father's funeral. He is Charles Rainier, the son of a wealthy businessman. He is struck by a taxi, and when he regains consciousness, his past memory is restored, but his life with Paula is now forgotten. Paula remains home with their newborn son while Smithy goes to Liverpool for a job interview with a newspaper. "Smithy", as Paula calls him, discovers he has some literary talent. After an incident that threatens to bring unwanted attention, Paula takes Smith to a secluded country village in Devon, where they marry and are blissfully happy. She guesses he is from the asylum, but as he seems harmless, she arranges for him to join her traveling theatrical group. In town, he is befriended by singer Paula Ridgeway. Greer Garson from the trailer for Random Harvest Garson, whose performance was well-received, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress (and won) that year for her role in Mrs.
The film was an instant commercial success and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Colman, Best Supporting Actress for Susan Peters, Best Director for Mervyn LeRoy and Best Picture. The film stars Ronald Colman as a shellshocked, amnesiac World War I veteran, and Greer Garson as his love interest.
This meant that the movie had to take a very different approach to the story. 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.
Claudine West, George Froeschel, and Arthur Wimperis adapted the novel for the screen, and received an Academy Award nomination. Random Harvest is a 1942 American romantic drama film based on the 1941 James Hilton novel of the same title, directed by Mervyn LeRoy.