The film's wartime spirit came naturally to Ronald Colman. Off-screen, he was heavily involved in the war effort, lending his voice to government radio broadcasts, serving on the Hollywood Victory Committee, working for The American Red Cross and selling bonds on extensive cross-country trips. He also served as president of British War Relief in Los Angeles, organizing the film capital's British colony in support of their homeland.

In his autobiography, Mervyn LeRoy: Take One, the director said of the stars of Random Harvest that "between the two of them, the English language was never spoken more beautifully on film."

When Garson's musical number scored a hit in screenings, a stocking manufacturer claimed that he recognized the stockings she was wearing as a special therapeutic model he had designed. He tried to generate publicity for his brand by giving interviews to various gossip columnists, but couldn't remember, from interview to interview, whether she was wearing stockings designed to camouflage knocked knees or bow legs. Garson responded with a poem: "Say I'm dreary, say I'm sad/Say my acting doesn't please/Say my films are awfully bad,/But don't knock my knees."

Colman was so pleased with the film what when he finished remodeling his Hollywood home that year, he dubbed it "Random House."

Critics carped about Colman's on-screen engagement to co-star Susan Peters because, at 51, he seemed too old for the 21-year-old actress (off screen, Colman's wife, Benita Hume, was 15 years younger than he). They did not complain about his playing husband to Greer Garson, who was 13 years younger, but later that year, gossip columnists had a field day when Garson married actor Richard Ney, nine years her junior. It didn't help that Ney had just played her adult son in Mrs. Miniver.

FUN QUOTES FROM RANDOM HARVEST (1942)

"I don't even know who I am."
"Well, I know who you are. You're someone awfully nice." -- Ronald Colman, who has taken the name John Smith, confesses his plight to Greer Garson as Paula.

"Look here, Smithy. You don't mind if I call you Smithy, do you? Now, how are you ever going to get better if you're not happy?" -- Garson as Paula, counseling Colman as John Smith.

"I'm -- all right. It's my speech. I can't -- remember. I'm not like the others. I'm not like them. I'm all right. But I -- I can't go back. I -- I'll never come out; I'll -- I'll be like the others." -- Colman as John Smith, finally facing the truth of his situation as an amnesiac.

"Paula, it's -- it's a lot of nerve, but -- I'm -- I've fallen in love with you. I'm asking you to marry me, on a -- on a check for two guineas."
"Smithy, don't ask me, please. I might take you up on it. I'm just that shameless. I've run after you from the very beginning; you know I have. I've never let you out of my sight since I first saw you in that little shop." -- Colman as Smithy, proposing to Greer Garson as Paula.

"Never leave me out of your sight -- never again. My life began with you. I can't imagine the future without you." -- Colman completing his proposal.

"1920. Three years gone. Three years. France -- I remember distinctly. But after that -- what after that? Liverpool -- what am I doing here? Where have I been? Better go home. Yes -- may clear things up. Better go home -- ." -- Colman getting back the memory that he's Charles Rainier, but forgetting the wife and child he had as Smithy.

"Sometimes, especially when we've been closest, I've had the curious feeling that I remind you of someone else - someone you once knew...someone you loved as you'll never love me. I am nearly the one, Charles. But nearly isn't enough for a lifetime." -- Susan Peters as Kitty, breaking her engagement with Colman.

"You and I are in the same boat, Miss Hanson; we're both -- ghost-ridden....We are prisoners of our past. What if we were to pool our loneliness, and give each other what little we have to give -- support, friendship? I'm proposing marriage, Miss Hanson, or -- should I call it a merger? A Member of Parliament should have a wife, Margaret; so I'm told on all sides. He needs a clever hostess; you have exceptional gifts. Would it interest you to have a wider field for them? You need have no fear that -- I would make any -- emotional demands upon you. I have only -- sincere friendship -- to offer. I won't ask any more from you." -- Colman as Rainier, proposing to Garson, now calling herself Margaret, not realizing they're already married.

"Isn't there something morbid in burying one's heart with the dead?"
"That's a strange thing for you to say. Your capacity for loving, your joy in living, is buried in a little space of time you've forgotten."
"In some vague way, I still have -- "
"-- hope?"
"Yes, I suppose that's it."
"Have you, Charles? Do you feel that there -- really is someone? That someday you may find her? You may have -- come so near her, may even have brushed her on the street....You might even have met her, Charles. Met her and not known her. It might be someone you know, Charles. It might -- it might even be me." -- Colman and Garson, considering their links to the past.

Compiled by Frank Miller