Some films, no matter how good their pedigree is, no matter if it has a great cast or had a good cinematographer, simply don't age well.

It doesn't matter if we're talking about an inept 21st Century spoof a la Date Movie or a so-so sci-fi adventure like The Last Starfighter, but some films definitely have a shorter shelf-life than others.

Take, for instance, Random Harvest, Melvyn LeRoy's 1942 adaptation of James Hilton's novel about a shell-shocked World War I veteran (Ronald Colman) who, horrified by the experiences in the trenches on the Western Front, loses his memory, is locked away in an asylum, somehow escapes, finds love in the form of a beautiful showgirl (Greer Garson), settles down for a while, only to go through a series of overly melodramatic episodes in which his memory comes and goes like the ebb and flow of a tide.

If you consider when this film was released (late 1942), you have to understand why Random Harvest was a solid box office hit for Metro Goldwyn Mayer. The Second World War was still raging, and although the U.S. had finally been drawn in, the issue was still in doubt. The Germans still hadn't been defeated at Stalingrad, the Japanese were making the First Marine Division pay a dear price for the island of Guadalcanal, and Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps was marching toward Cairo and the Suez Canal in North Africa.

This, of course, meant that people in the home front - who were either working in defense jobs or waiting at home for the "boys" to come home at war's end - badly needed to escape. And because the studio system could crank out a bunch of new movies every week (each of the major studios made 52 films a year), escape was found in the dark and crowded movie theaters in almost every city and town.

Because this was an MGM production, it bears all the hallmarks of a Louis B. Mayer-approved project - a schmaltzy-type of sentimentality, a calculated disregard for socio-economic realities, and more melodrama than anyone today could possibly tolerate.

Though the topic of war-related mental trauma was (and still is) very relevant, Random Harvest is saddled with way too many unbelievable situations for modern viewers to sit through. It is way too precious - the musical number in which Greer Garson reveals her shapely legs while dancing in a kilt not only looks too cute - and the script, written by Claudine West (The Good Earth, Goodbye Mr. Chips), George Froeschel, and Arthur Wimperis - the trio who also wrote Mrs. Miniver that same year - is dull and uninvolving.

Granted, producer Sidney Franklin made sure that Random Harvest bore all the hallmarks of an MGM "quality presentation." It has a fine leading man in Colman and a genuinely stellar female lead in Garson, and European refugee Philip Dorn is watchable as the psychiatrist who treats "John Smith" when the guy loses his memory not once but several times. Dorn's role is an odd one, though, because he seems to be pulled in two directions - he is responsible for "Smithy's" mental well being yet has the hots for his patient's wife.

Nevertheless, good production values and the fact that the picture was a big hit in 1942 and 1943 don't necessarily mean Random Harvest aged as well as its Warner Bros. contemporary Casablanca. Its dialog has no truly memorable lines along the lines of "Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," and it doesn't really juggle its multiple facets (drama, musical interlude, and social commentary) as deftly as the Bogart-Bergman-Rains movie does.

If you absolutely must see a Greer Garson movie from the period, run, don't walk, to the equally-sentimental and slickly produced (but far better) Mrs. Miniver, and skip this boring and lackluster flick.


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8