Actors - Harvey

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	Actors - Harvey

Harvey is a 1950 film based on a play of the same name, directed by Henry Koster, and starring Jimmy Stewart. Stewart plays a man whose best friend is Harvey, a human-sized rabbit invisible to almost everyone but himself. Josephine Hull plays his sister.

Hull's performance earned her an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress; Stewart's portrayal earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

Cast

Elwood P. Dowd: James Stewart
Veta Louise Simmons: Josephine Hull
Miss Kelly: Peggy Dow
Dr. Lyman Sanderson: Charles Drake
Dr. Willie Chumley: Cecil Kellaway
Myrtle Mae Simmons: Victoria Horne
Marvin Wilson: Jesse White

Plot

Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, a middle-aged, amiable, free-spirited (and somewhat odd) individual whose best friend is an invisible six-foot three and a half inches tall rabbit named Harvey. Harvey is actually a púca, a mischievous magical creature from Celtic mythology. As the film begins, Elwood has been driving his sister and niece, who crave normalcy and a place in 'society', to distraction by introducing everyone he meets to his pal Harvey.

His sister, Veta Louise Simmons (played by Hull), tries to have Elwood committed to a sanatorium, but, after admitting that she sees Harvey every once in awhile, they let Elwood out and lock her up. After sorting out the mistake, Dr. Chumley (played by Kellaway) goes after Elwood. When tracked down, Elwood goes through several ordeals, although he remains oblivious to the doctor's plans for him. In a touching scene where the doctor and his girlfriend/nurse follow Elwood into an alley, Elwood tells the incredible story of how he came to discover Harvey.

In the final scene of the film, when Elwood (along with everybody else) arrive back at the hospital, the doctor convinces Elwood to come into his office where he'll receive a serum that will "stop seeing the rabbit". Once they go into the office, the taxi driver tells Elwood's sister about what's happened to the other people who received that medicine and warns her that once he does Elwood will become one of the "normal people. And we know what stinkers they are." Upset by this idea, Veta halts the procedure. At the tale's end Harvey is (indirectly) seen opening the gate to the hospital to follow the others out.

Remakes

The play/film was made for television several times:

1972, in a version also starring Stewart and featuring Helen Hayes
as his sister Veta.
1985, in a version for West German television, with Harald Juhnke
as Elwood and Elisabeth Wiedemann as his sister.
1998, starring Harry Anderson
and Lisa Akey in the Elwood and Veta roles.

Trivia

The films Winchester '73
and Harvey, released a few months apart, were the first to include profit sharing for the film's star; talent agent Lew Wasserman is credited with getting Stewart contracts that guaranteed him a percentage of the returns on those films.
Though in the film, Harvey is said to be 6'3 1/2", on the stage it was changed to 6'7 1/2", to be more of a contrast with Stewart's own 6'3".
At the suggestion of James Stewart, the director changed many shots to make them wider so that "Harvey" would be in the frame.
The film Who Framed Roger Rabbit
includes a scene in which a character addresses an imaginary Harvey in an effort to mock Judge Doom. But that scene was referring to the stage version from 1944.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Harvey (film) ]

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Actors - Harvey

Cast

Plot

Remakes

Trivia

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