Random Harvest (1942)

Random Harvest (1942), directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

Remember how in Sleepless in Seattle the women made a big deal about the weepy romance An Affair to Remember? They should have used Random Harvest. It's a better film and even weepier.

The two leads carry it. Ronald Colman is tremendous as the shell-shocked soldier, that great voice and urbane demeanor reduced to silence and stammering, a little boy lost, uniform or no. Greer Garson has not only luminous beauty and those perfectly symmetrical features (aside: anyone remember Jaclyn Smith?) but also moral courage and fortitude that shames the rest of us.

Heavily melodramatic with the usual colorful English characters. Bitter and sweet, romantic and soapy, without much moderation. Love and amnesia. It plays up those childhood fears of "What if my parents went away and forgot to come home again?"

Nominated for seven Academy Awards. It would have been eight, but Greer Garson was ineligible, being already nominated for Best Actress for Mrs. Miniver (1942) -- which she won.

Available on DVD.