(11-12-2011, 05:57 PM)Virtual Bison Wrote: I remember reading James Hilton's Random Harvest. An amazing book that has been forgotten. There is a vivid description of what happened on that day.
Never read the book, but I've seen the movie starring the lovely Greer Garson and the elderly Ronald Colman. I suppose the cinematic version necessarily loses some of the luster of the novel, but it's quite interesting nonetheless. Colman was 51 when this movie was released in 1942, looking more than a bit too old and well-fed to be the freshly battle-scarred soldier.
Gotta love Hollywood. One minute he's a stammering amnesiac hopelessly stuck in an asylum without family or friends; the next he's hoisting a few with Greer Garson, who magically appears at his side and escorts him to safety in....her dressing room, of course.
Mervyn LeRoy was nominated as best director for this movie. LeRoy also directed such diverse epics as Little Caesar and The Bad Seed, as well as producing The Wizard of Oz. I've never seen him included among the film noir types, but some of the early scenes are very clearly intended to establish that mood. The "shadows on the glass" scenes reminded me of when Elisha Cook Jr. gets poisoned in Howard Hawks' 1946 The Big Sleep.
Don't know if it's just the Hays Code era of the movie or what, but there is some (most likely unintentional) comedy here. Colman's character either suffered a severe and unmentionable war injury or he's a complete fag. The old geezer has all these lovely babes panting over him and he takes years to get the hint.
This movie was released the same year as Casablanca, and I can't help but notice the parallel of the man haunted by the "lost love from the past." Bogart can't forget, this guy can't remember. Bogart selflessly sacrifices the great love of his life to aid the war effort, this guy aids the war effort at the cost of not remembering the great love of his life. Or something like that. Be careful crossing the street in Liverpool.