Decades later, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the "Chicago Reader" allowed that it had "a kind of deranged sincerity and integrity on its own terms". Leonard Maltin's capsule review reads "James Hilton novel given supremely entertaining MGM treatment, with Colman and Garson at their best." Hal Erickson wrote, "Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't believe a minute of "Random Harvest", but the magic spell woven by the stars and by author James Hilton ("Lost Horizon", "Goodbye Mr. Chips" etc.) transforms the wildly incredible into the wholly credible."