Harvey (1950)

Directed by Henry Koster. Starring James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow, Charles Drake, Jesse White, Victoria Horne, Cecil Kellaway, William H. Lynn, Grayce Mills, Dick Wessel, Clem Bevans.

Fantastical story of gentle barfly Elwood P. Dowd (Stewart) and his best friend, an invisible six foot-tall rabbit named Harvey. His long-suffering older sister (Hull) tries to get him committed for the sake of her daughter’s social life, but she and others that fall into Elwood’s orbit soon learn there’s more to him and his “madness” than meets the eye. Whimsical, amusing film grinds to a halt a few times in the second half, but incorporates a quietly remarkable message and always retains the same pleasantness as its protagonist—“My mother used to say to me, she’d say, ‘In this world, Elwood…you must be oh, so smart or oh, so pleasant.’ Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.” Stewart’s soft, relaxed performance ranks among the best of his career; Hull won an Oscar for her supporting turn; Dow and Drake (as a nurse and psychiatrist at the sanitorium) don’t leave much of an impression, but their characters are among the least interesting of the primary players anyway. Based on Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play; remade several times for television, including one version that brought back Stewart.

78/100