Harvey
Short description
Elwood P. Dowd is a friendly, gentle man whose constant companion is Harvey, a two-metre-tall rabbit that no one else can see. His sister Veta Louise grows exasperated with the situation, especially since it disrupts her plans for her daughter Myrtle Mae, and she decides to have her brother committed to a psychiatric institution. Her attempt sets off a series of mix-ups at the hospital rather than the quiet solution she expected, and other people are drawn into the confusion surrounding Elwood and his invisible friend.
Henry Koster directed the film, which followed his 1947 picture The Bishop's Wife and came before No Highway in the Sky, The Robe and later titles. James Stewart plays Elwood, with Josephine Hull as Veta Louise Simmons, Peggy Dow as Miss Kelly, Charles Drake as Dr. Sanderson, Cecil Kellaway as Dr. Chumley and Victoria Horne as Myrtle Mae Simmons; the credited cast numbers twenty. The screenplay was written by Oscar Brodney and Myles Connolly, and John Beck produced.
On IMDb the film holds 7.9 out of 10 from around 61,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.7 from roughly 700 votes. A critics' rating of 7.5 out of 10 from 32 reviews places it close to the audience scores, indicating broad approval. It runs 104 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- The character played by James Stewart (1908-1997) can be called an alcoholic, but he only drinks once throughout the entire film. This was because the film production's ethical code at the time did not allow showing a person getting drunk.
- Director Henry Koster followed a suggestion from James Stewart, who played Elwood P. Dowd, and filmed many scenes with a wider shot so that Harvey would be in the frame.
- The actors and technical crew often set an extra chair for Harvey at the table during lunch and ordered dishes for him. This was done as a joke.
- Screenwriter Mary Chase initially intended for the audience to actually see Harvey at the end of the film. She didn't want viewers to think that the main character was simply mentally unstable. The studio considered exactly how to show Harvey to the audience, but in the end, they decided against it.
- When Henry Koster married Peggy Moran in 1941, he promised that from then on, he would include her in every one of his films. He kept his word, but instead of filming Moran herself, he filmed her figurine—more often than not, her plaster head on a mantelpiece or a piano. In this film, Moran's plaster head is shown on a table during a two-minute scene in which Josephine Hull's character speaks with the character played by William H. Linn.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
