It’s A Wonderful List: Harvey (1950)

3rd May 2016

Some good friends recently handed me a bundle of DVDs they had inherited from a loved one who sadly passed away. I feel it’s my duty over the coming months to honour the gentleman’s impeccable taste in motion pictures by watching, reviewing and donating them to a charitable cause.

Harvey (1950)

For all intents and purposes, Elwood P. Dowd seems like a regular man about town. Kind, considerate and well mannered, Elwood is an upright gentleman of good standing who just so happens to be good friends with a 6 foot, 3 and a half inch, invisible rabbit named Harvey. After his sister tries to get him committed, a comedy of errors befalls the lives Elwood and Harvey touch upon. Heads are turned, hearts are won and the judgment of a man’s mental wellbeing is measured against a the nature of his soul.

Portraying the pure of heart never looked like much of a challenge to Jimmy Stewart, as he displays much of the same heartwarming affability that we admired in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. The depth of character goes beyond the basic premise where a man’s sanity is questioned. Here a consistent drinker can also be a caring, charitable fellow. His eccentricities either hiding a profound trauma or an extraordinary gift. Some of the humour in Harvey is brought forth by the cynical lives around Elwood, judging the enlightened and questioning his faculties.

Adapted from the award winning stage play of the same name, one of Harvey’s biggest coups is retaining actress Josephine Hull in the role of Elwood’s sister, Veta Louise Simmons. Her Oscar winning performance is as integral to the comedic mayhem as Stewarts in the sense that she bears a fragility that peeks through her abrasiveness. The loss of their mother and the question of how one copes through trauma is a huge aspect in this motion picture. Hull’s fussy old maid persona buzzes with a manic desperation that would be exhausting if it weren’t for the soothing ease at which Stewart’s Elwood (and Harvey) stroll through scenes.

Once watched, there is little doubt as to why Harvey is considered such a classic motion picture. The unashamed joy and sentimentality within its message marries perfectly to the sincerity of James Stewart’s portrayal of Elwood P. Dowd.

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