Harvey (1950)

This is the first Jimmy Stewart movie I ever saw, and for the longest time I thought Stewart's slow, drawling delivery was an indication that his character was drunk.

Imagine my surprise when I saw my second Stewart movie!

I guess this could count as a sort of late screwball comedy, except for the fact that it's such a gentle, light fantasy with the comedy content also being quite light.

It's certainly lumped with screwball comedies ("...if you liked Harvey...")

The premise of the fantastic invisible friend dates probably back to Crockett Johnson's Barnaby comic strip and forward to Oh God!, American Werewolf In London, Calvin & Hobbes, Fight Club, Donnie Darko (of course) and is spoofed in the 'Hymie' episode with Daffy Duck.

Harvey probably indicates a preference to a sort of madness, alcoholism equated to fantasy, or a rejection of reality values that has much in common with You Can't Take it With You.

Sure, it's easy to be eccentric when you are well off...

And frankly, if you are well off just what is the reality you are trying to escape? (Elwood P. Dowd apparently cracked upon his mother's death.)

The character is supposed to be an alcoholic, but compare Elwood to Nick Charles (of the Thin Man series)... Now that's real drinking.

Even the alcoholism is downplayed as such a light, unrealistic situation.

So, is this fantasy world simply an euphemistic metaphor for a very 'wholesome' form of alcoholism?

One of Elwood's friends is a guy who just came out of the pokey, and as nice and likable as Elwood claims to want to be, he utterly fails to fully identify or sympathize with the guy's problems, since he is apparently clueless as to just what it is that they are.

His niceness consists of listening (while at the same time not understanding) to people problems and inviting them for either drinks or dinner.

This is not a criticism of the movie, the movie is quite charming in and of itself.

It is a criticism of an attitude where nothing real needs to be done and that being nice is enough or preferable to facing the world and actually working hard to improve it.

Gilliam's fantasies (and to a lesser extent Del Toro's) also present characters escaping into madness - but they also show that it is a defeat of sorts.

By the end of this one we have two newly formed couples, but Elwood's life remains the same.

No growth on his part.

The fantastical content, of course, is the existence of a six foot tall invisible rabbit (a pooka in animal form.)

And while it would be easy to have the creature be all in Elwood's mind, we are shown evidence of the true existence of the pooka: doors open and close to allow it to exit and enter...

But the best & most fantastic evidence is the changing of the dictionary's text.

Don't miss that one!

A classic (Oscar winning) fantasy, not to be missed.