Harvey (1950)

   Mein Freund Harvey (1951) (Austria)

   Mein Freund Harvey (1951) (West Germany)

1950

The Wonderful Pulitzer Prize Play... becomes one of the Great Motion Pictures of our Time!

• USA
• Black and White
• 104 minutes
• Mono (Western Electric Recording)
• Universal International Pictures (UI or U-I) [us]
• MCA [us] (laserdisc/VHS)
  Universal International Pictures (UI or U-I) [us]
  Universal Pictures Corporation [us]
  Universal Pictures [us]
  Universal Studios Home Video [us] (DVD)
• Finland:S · Sweden:15 · USA:Approved (certificate #14694)
• Family Fantasy Comedy
  alcohol pooka psychiatrist sister imaginary-creature judge nurse party mental-institution taxi-driver rabbit sanitarium romance bar pulitzer-prize-source brother-sister-relationship invisible invisible-companion pookah drunkenness doctor friendship insanity based-on-play six-foot-tall-rabbit
• Language: English
• Released: USA:13 October 1950 · Sweden:26 March 1951 · Finland:4 May 1951 · Denmark:2 June 1951 · West Germany:3 August 1951 · Austria:25 December 1951
• Film Length: 2858.72 m
• Negative Format: 35 mm
• Process: Spherical
• Print Format: 35 mm
• Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

Plot summary

A middle aged drunk has been driving his sister and niece wild by introducing everyone he meets to his pal Harvey. Harvey is a big white rabbit, six feet three and a half inches tall, which only Elwood (and occasionally his sister when she's feeling odd) can see. The sister, Veta Louise Simmons, tries to have Elwood committed to Chumleys Rest sanatorium, but they let Elwood out and lock her up. After sorting out the mistake, Dr Chumley goes after Elwood himself.

Zaphod <aaa@scs.leeds.ac.uk>

Rating

8.1 0000001222 (4954 votes)

Movie links

referenced in

Louisa (1950)
Bigamist, The (1953)
Desk Set (1957)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Field of Dreams (1989)
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies (2000) (TV)
Beautiful Mind, A (2001)
Donnie Darko (2001)

spoofed in

Mr. Horatio Knibbles (1971)
Billy Madison (1995)

featured in

James Stewart: A Wonderful Life (1987) (TV)
Field of Dreams (1989)
Bogus (1996)
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies (2000) (TV)

version of

Harvey (1972) (TV)
Mein Freund Harvey (1985) (TV)
Harvey (1996) (TV)

Trivia

• Though 'James Stewart' (qv)'s character, Elwood P. Dowd, may certainly be referred to as an alcoholic, not once in the entire picture do you see him take a drink!
• Universal-International paid $750,000 for the film rights.
• The original play opened in New York on 1 November 1944.
• 'Josephine Hull' (qv) first performed her role in the Broadway version of Harvey.
• Though in the film, Harvey is 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".

Crazy Credits

• At the very end Harvey opens a door and the words at the bottom of the screen say "Harvey as Himself."

Quotes

• Elwood P. Dowd: Here, let me give you one of my cards. Now if you should want to call me, use this number. This other one is the old number.
• Dr. Sanderson: Think carefully, Dowd. Didn't you know somebody, sometime, someplace with the name of Harvey? Didn't you ever know anybody by that name?
  Elwood P. Dowd: No, no, not one, Dr. Maybe that's why I always had such hopes for it.
• Elwood P. Dowd: Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.
• Elwood P. Dowd: I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whoever I'm with.
• Elwood P. Dowd: Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" -- she always called me Elwood -- "In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. And you may quote me.
• Elwood P. Dowd: Wouldn't that get a little monotonous, just Akron, cold beer and 'poor, poor thing' for two weeks?
• Veta Louise Simmons: Myrtle Mae, you have a lot to learn, and I hope you never learn it.
• Elwood P. Dowd: Harvey and I have things to do...we sit in the bars...have a drink or two...and play the juke box. Very soon the faces of the other people turn towards me and they smile. They say: 'We don't know your name, mister, but you're all right, all right.' Harvey and I warm ourselves in these golden moments. We came as strangers - soon we have friends. They come over. They sit with us. They drink with us. They talk to us. They tell us about the great big terrible things they've done and the great big wonderful things they're going to do. Their hopes, their regrets. Their loves, their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar. Then I introduce them to Harvey, and he's bigger and grander than anything they can offer me. When they leave, they leave impressed. The same people seldom come back.
• Elwood P. Dowd: I'd just helped Ed Hickey into a taxi. Ed had been mixing his drinks, and I felt he needed conveying. I started to walk down the street when I heard a voice saying: 'Good evening, Mr. Dowd'. I turned, and there was this big white rabbit leaning against a lamp-post. Well, I thought nothing of that! Because when you've lived in a town as long as I've lived in this one, you get used to the fact that everybody knows your name.
• Veta Louise Simmons: Oh, Myrtle, don't be didactic. It's not becoming in a young girl. Besides, men loathe it.
• Mrs. Ethel Chauvenet: Is, is that Mrs. Frank Cummings? Doesn't she look ghastly, I thought she was dead. I must get a closer look.
• Veta Louise Simmons: As I was going down to the taxi cab to get Elwood's things, this awful man stepped out. He was a white slaver, I know he was. He was wearing one of those white suits, that's how they advertise.
• Veta Louise Simmons: Judge Gaffney, is that all those doctors do in places like that - think about sex?
  Judge Gaffney: I don't know.
  Veta Louise Simmons: Because if it is they ought to be ashamed of themselves. It's all in their heads anyway. Why don't they get out and take long walks in the fresh air?
• Wilson: Who's Harvey?
  Miss Kelly: A white rabbit, six feet tall.
  Wilson: Six feet!?
  Elwood P. Dowd: Six feet three and a half inches. Now let's stick to the facts.
• Bartender: What can I do for you, Mr. Dowd?
  Elwood P. Dowd: What did you have in mind?
• Veta Louise Simmons: I took a course in art last winter. I learnt the difference between a fine oil painting, and a mechanical thing, like a photograph. The photograph shows only the reality. The painting shows not only the reality, but the dream behind it. It's our dreams, doctor, that carry us on. They separate us from the beasts. I wouldn't want to go on living if I thought it was all just eating, and sleeping, and taking my clothes off, I mean putting them on...
• Henry Riley, Cab Driver: ... Ive been driving this route for 15 years. Ive brought them out here to get that stuff, and ive drove them home after they had it. It changes them... On they way out here, they sit back and enjoy the ride. They talk to me, some times we stop and watch the sunset, and look at the birds fly. And sometimes we stop and watch the bird when there aint no birds. And look at the sunset when its raining. We have a swell time. And I always get a big tip. But afterwards, uh oh, they crab, crab, crab. They yell at me. Watch the lights. Watch the brakes, Watch the intersection. They scream at me to hurry. They got no fait in me, or my buggy. Yet, its the same cab, the same driver. and we're going back over the very same road. It's no fun. And no tips... After this he'll be a perfectly normal human being. And you know what stinkers they are!

Literature

Novel

Chase, Mary. Harvey, a Comedy. New York, 1944.
Chase, Mary. Harvey, a Comedy in Three Acts (Acting Edition). New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1950. 72 pages.

Business Info

Production Dates

18 April 1950 - 6 June 1950

Copyright Holder

Universal Pictures Co., Inc., 17 October 1950, LP427

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