Somehow, from the list of the greatest romantic films, in August, I missed out Random Harvest, starring Ronald Colman and Greer Garson (MGM 1942). The central character played by Colman is a shell-shocked WWI soldier suffering from amnesia. At the end of the War he slips out of an asylum in the midlands of England and finds himself in a tobacconist where his halting speech gives him away and, as the shopkeeper goes to call the police, a stage-performer in a travelling troupe - "Paula", played by Greer Garson, enters the shop and suggests that he shouldn't hang around. He latches on to her and she decides to help him, calling him "Smithy". Eventually, she takes him off to a village in Devon to recuperate and he starts writing and even sells some articles to a newspaper in Liverpool. They get married and have a child (who later dies) and, on the day after the birth, he is summoned to Liverpool for an interview with the paper. Knocked down in a road accident, Smithy remembers who he really is and forgets his recent life, except that he finds the key [to his house in Devon] in his pocket. Suspended disbelief has to extend to the fact that he would probably have had a return train ticket and the letter from the newspaper, inviting him to interview, showing his recent name and address. But, maybe, this is a small point. He then remembers that he is a member of a rich family and goes to his original home. There then follows a period during which he cannot quite marry someone else and Paula becomes his secretary. After he becomes an MP she becomes his wife but each of them exhibits the loneliness of the losses that they have sustained; only Paula knows the truth but is advised to keep it from him. After a series of coincidental journeys and meetings, Smithy finds himself back at the Devon cottage, opening the squeaky gate and moving aside the blossom-laden cherry-tree branch to get to the front door, where he opens the door with the key just as Paula arrives and calls out "Smithy". Of course he then recognizes her and all is obviously going to be well. Mawkish? Maybe. Effective as cinema? Certainly. Those old Hollywood makers, aided and abetted by the music composers, knew how to hit the mark. The picture above is a still from near the beginning of the film when they are in the tobacconist. The film wa snominated for seven Oscars and although it did not win any, that year Greer Garson won the best actress Oscar for her stirring performance as Mrs Miniver.