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Post by wmcclain on Jul 31, 2020 11:19:49 GMT
Harvey (1950), directed by Henry Koster. In memory this is the mildest of the gentle, good natured eccentric family comedies. When watching it I'm pulled into its wacky but humane vision and it always seems so much better than I remember. We think we know James Stewart in all his aspects, but it's amazing how he wears the role like a comfortable suit of clothes, as if he's been Elwood P. Dowd all his life. I suspect everyone would start seeing the pooka if they hung around long enough. Like the artist who painted his portrait? But I don't know who drinks his martinis, unless... well, never mind. Obviously adapted from a stage play, which can be a problem, but in this case the story is opened up into a number of locations. Photographed by William H. Daniels; you can tell. I identify movies by the director, but if I were a real cinephile I would pay vastly more attention to the rest of the crew. Available on a very nice Blu-ray, with an image both detailed and finely grained.
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Post by marianne48 on Jul 31, 2020 17:23:12 GMT
I asked this question on the "I Need to Know" board on the old IMDb site a few years ago, but never got an answer. Maybe some Harvey aficionado here would know the answer. When playwright Mary Coyle Chase passed away in 1981, I remember reading a brief obituary about her in some magazine which mentioned that she had several different animal candidates in mind for the "pooka" in her play before she decided on a rabbit. I think one of them was a giant penguin. I've tried Googling this, but I've been unable to track this story down anywhere. Does anyone else remember reading this, or was I just--seeing things?!
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Post by teleadm on Jul 31, 2020 19:20:29 GMT
One of the most charming movies to come of the 1950s.
Utterly enjoyable!
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jul 31, 2020 20:07:55 GMT
One of the marvelous things about the character of Elwood P. Dowd, and James Stewart's suitability to the role, is that he's, for all practical purposes, ageless. Stewart played it on B'way in his late 30s (replacing originator Frank Fay) and again in his early 60s, and I daresay each must have been as effective as it was on film when he was in his 40s. The guileless amiability of a man who finds wonderment in every aspect of life and every person he meets knows no age, and is among the qualities that makes the story charming and timeless.
Jospehine Hull, as Elwood's sister Veta, recreated her stage role, just as she'd done in Arsenic and Old Lace. Two such indelible ones, so opposed to one another in temperament, in a film career that encompassed only five features (along with her more than three dozen B'way appearances) are quite impressive. We may not have seen her much on the screen, but when we did, it was memorable. Jesse White, as orderly Wilson, also reprised his B'way role.
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Post by mattgarth on Jul 31, 2020 20:25:56 GMT
It's a film that is both so wise, and oh so pleasant.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Aug 1, 2020 3:13:35 GMT
One of my most favorite-est of favorites ! A forever film if ever there was one !
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Post by BATouttaheck on Aug 1, 2020 3:16:26 GMT
Any of our resident Triviads know where the portrait is now (or do I need to ask on INTK) ?
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Aug 1, 2020 4:41:25 GMT
I remember a thread (might have been of the old board, might have been another site) that had a lot of support for Elwood P. Dowd being the most likable character if film history (other that heroic or religious figures). Who would hang with Elwood and Harvey for an afternoon?
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Post by The Herald Erjen on Aug 1, 2020 10:30:34 GMT
Does mszanadu know about this thread? She does now.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Aug 1, 2020 11:37:41 GMT
One of the marvelous things about the character of Elwood P. Dowd, and James Stewart's suitability to the role, is that he's, for all practical purposes, ageless. Stewart played it on B'way in his late 30s (replacing originator Frank Fay) and again in his early 60s, and I daresay each must have been as effective as it was on film when he was in his 40s. The guileless amiability of a man who finds wonderment in every aspect of life and every person he meets knows no age, and is among the qualities that makes the story charming and timeless. Jospehine Hull, as Elwood's sister Veta, recreated her stage role, just as she'd done in Arsenic and Old Lace. Two such indelible ones, so opposed to one another in temperament, in a film career that encompassed only five features (along with her more than three dozen B'way appearances) are quite impressive. We may not have seen her much on the screen, but when we did, it was memorable. Jesse White, as orderly Wilson, also reprised his B'way role. My understanding is the stage play is more dark than the lighthearted movie. That was a pretty common occurrence when adapting plays to the screen during the studio/PCA era, even with lighter material like Harvey. The same was true of Arsenic and Old Lace, for instance. At the end of the play, Mr. Witherspoon (played on film by Edward Everett Horton) becomes the sisters' final victim. Speaking of the PCA, it's something of a marvel Arsenic got made at all. The Breen office was strict about killers paying for their crimes, either by their own deaths at the hands of others (suicide was not generally considered an acceptable option), or at the hands of the law. Retiring happily to Happydale seems pretty benign for the rigid Breen, and I can guess only that his standards were relaxed because none of the killings actually took place during the story as presented. Merely a theory, though.
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Post by marianne48 on Aug 1, 2020 13:59:52 GMT
Having the Brewsters retire happily to Happydale was a benign ending compared to the ending of the stage play (don't wanna give it away here). The story was inspired by a real life case and playwright Joseph Kesselring had originally intended it to be a drama before turning it into a dark comedy.
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