Slightly ludicrous, enormously effective amnesia tale from James Hilton (LOST HORIZON; GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS), a real whopper about fragile WWI vet Ronald Colman who leaves a sanitarium only to find himself lost amid huge armistice street celebrations. Rescued by Greer Garson’s charming lassie (she’s a sort of female Harry Lauder entertainer), the two quickly bond (marriage/child) until a fresh bump on the Colman noggin brings back his old forgotten self while simultaneously wiping out any recollection of the past three years with Greer! (Carol Burnett might have made it one of her wicked tv parodies without altering a line.) Yet, under producer Sidney Franklin & director Mervyn LeRoy, the fraudulence is so controlled & all-of-a-piece, the film takes flight into a kind of alternate universe of believable studio artifice.* (Imagine this played in actual settings & locations to see the stylistic dilemma Hollywood found itself facing in the more realistic Post-WWII film æsthetic.) Ultimately, Ronald Colman is the likely cause of audience capitulation & emotional involvement. (The film was an enormous success.) He brings a touching quality to even the most unlikely situation, a halting grace, especially in the barely verbal early scenes when he’s in quiet distress. As one of the few great silent stars to not only transition, but grow in stature in the sound era (somewhat like Garbo), it's as if his pre-Talkie technique added an extra tool to his acting arsenal, a special utility unavailable to others.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: One of the more interesting costume designers in Hollywood, Robert Kalloch outdoes himself in a formal number for Garson at a reception for the Prime Minister. John Singer Sargent LADY X stuff.
DOUBLE-BILL: *Yet even the same producer/director find no similar conviction or emotional effect in WATERLOO BRIDGE, an equally artificial construct that grates rather than charms.
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