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Harvey Overview:

Harvey (1950) was a Comedy - Drama Film directed by Henry Koster and produced by John Beck.

SYNOPSIS

Elwood is a good-natured, slightly sloshed man whose faithful companion is a 6-feet-3.5-inches-tall rabbit that only he can see. When his sister Veta (Hull) tries to have him committed, she's taken in instead. It's up to Elwood and Harvey to straighten out the mess. Stewart in his best amiable, bumbling mode.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Academy Awards 1950 --- Ceremony Number 23 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorJames StewartNominated
Best Supporting ActressJosephine HullWon

Harvey BlogHub Articles:

Getting to Know Peggy Dow: Harvey and Beyond

source: IMDb The L.A. Times headline in 1951 read: “Peggy Dow Sketches Future as She Quits Hollywood to Wed” Many people recall how Grace Kelly famously married Prince Rainier of Monaco and from thenceforward left her stirling Hollywood career behind out of a sense of love and duty. That... Read full article


Turning a Page on film books: Anita arrives, James Harvey leaves

It's still hard to believe a book was dedicated to me, but it happened some years ago when Michelle Morgan wrote "Carole Lombard: Twentieth-Century Star." (I assisted her with research at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library.)Since becoming a Lombard fan three and ... Read full article


Becker (1998) s01e18 – Saving Harvey Cohen

The episode plays like writer Eric Cohen really likes “Becker.” Everyone in the cast gets something to do; even if it’s a little subplot, it’s a complete one. The main plot has Becker (Ted Danson) reluctantly caring for a sick stray cat, including some really obvious stuff when he takes it t... Read full article


The Manchurian Candidate (1962) – with Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey

Share This! An idea once unbelievable. . . . Then unthinkable. . . . Now all too possible. . . .  A chilling classic. In the recent war in Iraq and the current one in Afghanistan, the greatest threat and concern has been and is—torture.  Although torture had also been a concern in the Kore... Read full article


Josephine Hull in HARVEY

Josephine Sherwood decided to study drama at Radcliffe College because she couldn’t fight the urge to perform.  The Newtonville, Massachusetts native began her journey to become one of the greats of the American theater in a stock company in Boston.  Hers was not the built of a glamour quee... Read full article


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Harvey Quotes:

Elwood P. Dowd: Well, thank you Harvey! I prefer you too.

Elwood P. Dowd: Wouldn't that get a little monotonous, just Akron, cold beer and 'poor, poor thing' for two weeks?

Elwood P. Dowd: Harvey and I sit in the bars... have a drink or two... play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they turn toward mine and they smile. And they're saying, "We don't know your name, mister, but you're a very nice fella." Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments. We've entered as strangers - soon we have friends. And they come over... and they sit with us... and they drink with us... and they talk to us. They tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar. And then I introduce them to Harvey... and he's bigger and grander than anything they offer me. And when they leave, they leave impressed. The same people seldom come back; but that's envy, my dear. There's a little bit of envy in the best of us.

Wilson: I'll tell you something, Myrt.
Myrtle Mae Simmons: Yeah?
Wilson: You know, you not only got a nice build, but you got something else, too.
Myrtle Mae Simmons: Really? What?
Wilson: You got the screwiest uncle that ever stuck his puss inside our nuthouse.

Elwood P. Dowd: You see, science has overcome time and space. Well, Harvey has overcome not only time and space, but any objections.
Dr. Chumley: Fly specks, fly specks! I've been spending my life among fly specks while miracles have been leaning on lampposts at 18th and Fairfax!
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Harvey Facts
Though James Stewart's character, Elwood P. Dowd, may certainly be referred to as an alcoholic, only at one time in the entire picture is he seen taking a drink.

Although James Stewart is 6'4'', he refers to Harvey as being 6'3 1/2'' tall in the film and looks up at him during the entire film. That's because this is Harvey's height in the original play by Mary Chase. In a 1990 interview, Stewart said that he had decided that for the film, Harvey was going to be 6'8'', so that he could indeed look up at him.

The original Broadway production of "Harvey" by Mary Chase opened on November 1, 1944 at the 48th Street Theatre, ran for 1775 performances and won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1945.

At the suggestion of James Stewart, the director changed many shots to make them wider so that "Harvey" would be in the frame.

Josephine Hull first performed her role in the Broadway version of Harvey. Jesse White also appeared in the original Broadway production and a 1972 television version.

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