Random Harvest (film) - Plot

Plot

"John Smith" (Ronald Colman) is a British officer who was gassed and became shellshocked in the trenches during the First World War. He is confined to an asylum as an unidentified inmate because he has lost his memory and has trouble speaking. When the war ends, jubilation erupts in the nearby town of Melbridge and the gatekeepers abandon their posts to join the celebration. With no one to stop him, Smith simply wanders off.

In town, he is befriended by singer Paula (Greer Garson). She guesses he is from the asylum, but as he seems harmless, she arranges for him to join her traveling theatrical group. After an incident that threatens to bring unwanted attention, Paula takes Smith away to a secluded country village, where they marry and are blissfully happy.

"Smithy", as Paula calls him, discovers a literary talent and tries writing to earn a living. Paula remains home with their newborn baby while Smithy goes to Liverpool for a job interview with a newspaper. There, he is struck by a taxi. When he regains consciousness, his past memory is restored, but his life with Paula is now forgotten. He is Charles Rainier, the son of a wealthy businessman. None of his meager possessions, including a key, provide any clue how he got there from the battleground of France.

Charles returns home on the day of his father's funeral, to the family's amazement, as he had been given up for dead. Fifteen-year-old Kitty (Susan Peters), the stepdaughter of one of Charles' siblings, becomes infatuated with her "uncle".

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 the many employees and to restore the family fortune. After a few years, a newspaper touts him as the "Industrial Prince of England."

Meanwhile, Paula has been searching for her Smithy. Their son having died as an infant, she returns to work as a secretary. One day, she sees Charles' picture in a newspaper and manages to become his executive assistant, calling herself Margaret (Paula being her stage name), hoping that her presence will jog his memory. Her confidante and admirer, Dr. Jonathan Benet (Phillip Dorn), warns her that revealing her identity would only cause Charles to resent her.

As Kitty grows up, she sends Charles love letters. Eventually they become engaged. Margaret has Smithy declared legally dead, seven years having elapsed since he left her, dissolving their marriage. However, a hymn that Kitty is considering for their upcoming wedding triggers a vague memory in Charles. Kitty realizes that he still loves someone else and, heartbroken, breaks off the engagement.

When Margaret hears Charles is in Liverpool, trying one last time to piece together his lost years, she rushes to him. They recover his suitcase from a hotel, but he recognizes nothing.

Charles is then approached to stand for Parliament. After his election, in which Margaret provided invaluable assistance, he feels the need for a wife in his new role. He proposes to her, more as a business proposition than a romantic one. She accepts.

They become an ideal couple, at least to all outward appearance. She is the perfect society hostess. They sometimes discuss his lost past, and at one point, she tells him of her own lost love, without disclosing that it is him. Charles hopes their life together can fill the void they both feel. Desperately unhappy, Margaret decides to take an extended vacation abroad by herself. Before her liner sails, she revisits the hamlet where she and Smithy lived.

Meanwhile, Charles is called upon to mediate a strike at the Melbridge Cable Works. He succeeds. Walking through the town, the familiar surroundings and the celebrating workers begin to unlock his lost memories. This eventually leads him to the cottage he and Paula shared. Hesitantly, he tries the old key he kept, and finds that it unlocks the door. Margaret, about to leave for the boat train, makes a casual remark to the current innkeeper about the former owner. The innkeeper remarks that someone else had just that morning asked about the same woman. Margaret hurries to the cottage and calls "Smithy!" He turns, memories flooding back; he cries out "Paula!" and they embrace.