A lot of old classic films haven't aged all that well (Caine Mutiny as an example), but "Harvey" is just as much fun to watch now as it must have been then. First off, Jimmy Stewart as the hero, Elwood P. Dowd, is amazing. Stewart with his lanky good looks and aw-shucks manner was often typecast as the all-American good guy, but his true range as an actor was huge. (Think of his creepy, obsessed detective in Vertigo, or his conflicted and cynical banker in It's a Wonderful Life). Here, he absolutely nails the role of a seemingly vacuous, terminally pleasant middle-aged man with an invisible six-foot-three rabbit for a friend. He plays the part of a blithely happy, unrelentingly optimistic man who tried being smart and opted instead for pleasant, down to the smallest expression.
After it's over, with happy resolutions all around, the depths start sinking in. There's a sly theological component to all this. His family and friends think Elwood is cheerfully crazy. Not a danger to anyone, in fact just the opposite -- but crazy. But how many people in the real world believe, or claim to believe, in an invisible spirit who talks with them? Elwood is kind of like a prophet, for the Church of Unreasonable Niceness. He's practically a walking advertisement for "blessed are the meek". He treats everyone as either a friend or someone who's going to be a friend. He describes everyone he knows as "a wonderful person" and the thing is, he means it. He invites anyone he meets over to the house for dinner (to the despair of his almost equally batty sister Veta, played energetically by Josephine Hull). And the thing is that he wins them over. The people around him end up happier and behaving better.
Not that "Harvey" himself is angelic. He's more of an Old-World style of spirit, a trickster like Loki or Coyote. He comes and goes when he pleases, walks through closed doors, and puts cryptic messages in books. And I like the fact that we never do 'see' him, right to the end. Imagination is a powerful force and this movie lets it work. Elwood constantly chides us into imagining a better world.
After it's over, with happy resolutions all around, the depths start sinking in. There's a sly theological component to all this. His family and friends think Elwood is cheerfully crazy. Not a danger to anyone, in fact just the opposite -- but crazy. But how many people in the real world believe, or claim to believe, in an invisible spirit who talks with them? Elwood is kind of like a prophet, for the Church of Unreasonable Niceness. He's practically a walking advertisement for "blessed are the meek". He treats everyone as either a friend or someone who's going to be a friend. He describes everyone he knows as "a wonderful person" and the thing is, he means it. He invites anyone he meets over to the house for dinner (to the despair of his almost equally batty sister Veta, played energetically by Josephine Hull). And the thing is that he wins them over. The people around him end up happier and behaving better.
Not that "Harvey" himself is angelic. He's more of an Old-World style of spirit, a trickster like Loki or Coyote. He comes and goes when he pleases, walks through closed doors, and puts cryptic messages in books. And I like the fact that we never do 'see' him, right to the end. Imagination is a powerful force and this movie lets it work. Elwood constantly chides us into imagining a better world.