Directed by: Jack Smight
Written by: William Goldman Ross Macdonald
Starring: Paul Newman as Lew Harper Lauren Bacall as Elaine Sampson
The 40s meets the 60s. Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer becomes Lew Harper for his movie version of The Moving Target. Harper is hired by steely Elaine Sampson to find her husband, who's disappeared. Soon he finds that everybody involved has something to hide, only who's hiding the husband?
Despite the serious detective-story underpinnings, the movie is full of offbeat humor, from the first scene to the last. The cast of characters is full of oddball takes on standard hardboiled stereotypes, including a wild daughter in a bikini, the playboy hanger-on boyfriend, an only-in-California cult leader, etc.
But there's more to the movie than that. A man is missing, maybe dead. One of these goofy people did it. And, on a more personal note, Harper's marriage is falling apart. Hell, he can't even get killed properly.
Even if the update to "current" times doesn't always come off, Newman is always convincing as Harper, right down to the final frame. Reportedly, the name was changed because Newman had starred in a series of movies featuring characters with names starting with 'H' (Hud, Hombre, etc.). Stranger things have happened, though it seems more likely that the studio bought the rights to the book but not the character. Newman appeared again as Harper nine years later in The Drowning Pool.
Customer Reviews:
The Cringing Sixties Rating: The '60s was a great stimulant to popular music--and vice versa--but for popular movies, not so much. Maybe because it took a heck of a lot more money to produce a Hollywood movie than an LP: ergo, lots more gatekeepers in Hollywood. Producers with big bucks on the line shied from anything really innovative, or fatally watered down anything true to what was going on out in the streets. Certainly lots of '60s movies just embarrassed themselves trying to be au courant: Peter Sellers movies like "The Party" and "What's New Pussycat" come painfully to mind.
"Harper," sadly, is one of those. It's an embarrassing, crushingly tedious mid-sixties updating of the whole Raymond Chandler-noir L.A. trope, with Paul Newman in an off-kilter performance failing to find a way to play a hip '60s version of Sam Spade cool. (Steve McQueen managed it beautifully a couple of years later in "Bullitt.")
That failure of translation--from Chandler's dead-pan '40s to hip Byrds-era '60s--is "Harper" all over. The narcotized, narcissistic poor little rich girl/sex kitten from "The Big Sleep" makes her appearance here doing (ouch) the boogaloo in a bikini at the end of a diving board. Newman's Harper tries trading drinks for info with Shelley Winter's blowzy booze-hound at the requisite dive-bar-with-character; soon they're out on the dance floor fruggin' (wince) with the kids. Dives-with-character don't HAVE dance floors, and they certainly don't have house bands that look like Tommmy James and the Shondells.
Really, I have no idea what movie most of the four and five star posters here are talking about. I saw "Harper" recently at the American Film Institute's fine theater outside Washington, and even though I'm a Newman fan and was in a sentimental mood following his sad passing, I walked out half way through. I just couldn't take it anymore.
Just rent "The Big Sleep" or "The Maltese Falcon" for the fifth time--or try "The Late Show" or "The Long Goodbye," more successful '70s turns on the same Chandleresque base material. But stay away from this one.
West Coast Cool - Told Like It Probably Happened Rating: Harper is one of those movies that makes practical spiritual sense to me. The movie develops people's attitudes and the flow of facts the way these things would develop in a real investigation. How do I know - I was a policeman for 30-plus years. It's a movie about people who can afford a private eye and an expensive attorney. The kind of people that don't want to live their lives in the same manner that they want everyone to think that they do - rich hypocrites. They pay enough to get the job done right but somehow fail to inspire loyalty and trust.
Harper does his job, gets his butt kicked, kicks some butt and figures out that old friends, who have saved your butt, are more important than ethics or philosophy! In the end, Harper knows a little more about who he really is. More importantly, he gains clarity from his interaction with some bad people rather than from an intellectual pursuit.
Hey, it's an entertaining movie about a kidnap/homicide. The victim is a rich man who plays with the wrong crowd and looses. It's about an LA P.I. that isn't taking pictures of guys cheating on their wives; at least at the moment. It's an old time detective movie set in the late fifties or early sixties. It has a great list of actors. The architecture is great too!
If you like it - the sequel is "The Drowning Pool!" You might want to try China Town, The Two Jakes, LA Confidential and the Black Dahlia too.
Newman At His Best Rating: Besides this being just a flat out great detective story, it has style and character. It's great entertainment, and solid acting from all involved like Robert Wagner, Julie Harris and Arthur Hill. If you like beautiful damsels in distress, you won't find one anymore lovely than actress Pamela Tiffin. I also love the two extras on the DVD. Introduction by TCM host Robert Osborne and commentary by the actual screenwriter William Goldman. If you love classic detective drama, this is a must have.
Paul Newman is ice cool in Harper Rating: This is an interesting film. Newman plays Lew Harper who is kind of like a groovy 60's version of Phillip Marlowe; sardonic, tough, irresistable to women. While the movie is dated and sexist, it is well worth viewing, not just for Newman's charismatic performance but for some brilliant supporting roles. Janet Leigh plays his bitter estranged wife, Shelley Winters is poignant as a sloppy barroom slattern, Robert Wagner is a breezy, easy and amoral but hides an unexpected secret. Best of all is Lauren Bacall who purrs, growls and hisses in a scene stealing performance as the cynical woman who enlists Harper's services. Not a perfect movie but immensely entertaining.
An Infectious Gem from the 1960s Rating: I recall seeing Harper on the big screen when it came out in '66, and have owned the VHS tape. The new DVD release is a joy: the incredibly cinematography looks gorgous, the award-winning soundtrack pops, and the commentary from William Goldman adds new insights to this unappreciated classic.
Harper is a classic, very funny, character-driven private eye yarn with a great cast set against the hopped-up world of mid 1960's LA. Sure, maybe a few things are dated but this film stands up very well after more than 40 years. The truths of Harper (people are crazier than bedbugs, they lie, surface appearances deceive, but once in awhile honor prevails) remain valid. More important, this film is "a gas" (in 60's parlance) to watch. The only thing missing from this package is a CD with Johnny Mandel's complete score (I know this is out on vinyl but haven't tracked down the CD -- yet).
