“Who is Harvey?” I hear you ask. Well, to quote Elwood P. Dowd, “He’s a Pooka!” Pooka’s, according to Celtic folklore, are mischievous spirits who can shapeshift into different kinds of animals and assist the humans they come in contact with. Harvey happens to be a six-foot, three-and-a-half inches tall white rabbit, only visible to Elwood.

Elwood’s a simple and peaceful man. He has the demeanor of a monk, and his best friend is an invisible rabbit whom he tries to introduce to everyone he meets. His sister, Veta, and niece, Myrtle Mae, live with him at his estate, and tries throwing a party at their house. However, the guests get weirded out and leave when Elwood has a seemingly-one-sided conversation with Harvey in the corner. Veta is understandably upset with her brother, and decides to have him committed to a sanatorium, but at the sanatorium, when Veta is explaining Elwood’s “problems”, she accidentally lets it slip that she sometimes sees Harvey. The doctor who listens to her story decides that she’s the one who should be institutionalized, so he lets Elwood go free. The head of the sanatorium, Dr. Chumley, realizes the mistake and everyone goes searching for Elwood. Dr. Chumley finds him at Charlie’s, Elwood’s favorite watering hole. There, Elwood, Dr. Chumley and Harvey converse for several hours. When the others at the sanatorium realize how long Dr. Chumley’s been gone, they go to Charlie’s. However, Dr. Chumley is nowhere to be found, but Elwood is there. They bring him back to the sanatorium, believing he has in some way harmed Dr. Chumley, whom Elwood claims is off with Harvey. Dr. Chumley soon returns and privately admits to Elwood that he now fully believes Harvey is real. However, the others decide to still commit Elwood, and plan to inject him with a formula that will make him “stop seeing the rabbit”. Realizing the cab driver that brought them all back from Charlie’s is still waiting to be paid, Veta goes outside with her bag, looking for her coin purse. She is unable to find it, unsure of where she could have left it, and insists that the cab driver wait until Elwood has been injected, then he can come out and pay. The cabbie makes some comments about the injection – how it turns interesting people into boring ones – and Veta decides to not go through with the injection, and chooses to believe Harvey is real too.

In a long list of movies that celebrate quirky individualism, Harvey is near the top. It’s so sweet and, outside of the final conversation with the cab driver, it isn’t in your face with the message. James Stewart plays Elwood so earnestly, it has to be one of his most endearing performances – more bright-eyed than Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and more patient that Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation. Veta’s actress, Josephine Hull, won an Oscar for her performance, which Stewart helped push for by saying she had the hardest role in the film because she had to “not believe in Harvey and believe in Harvey at the same time.” Hull had a short film career, with only six credits to her name, but she did so much with so little. She’s also one of the aunts in Arsenic and Old Lace, so check that out too.

One of the smartest decisions for the filmmakers was to treat Harvey as if he is there and visible. There’s instances where the camera “follows” Harvey as he supposedly moves, and in general, the film is full of wider shots to ensure that Harvey is in the frame when he walks around with James Stewart. The camera treating Harvey as actually there helps the audience to do the same, and while the film never directly shows he’s real, it does enough to make sure that we believe he is. Harvey is great fun and a whimsical movie to spend an evening with.

Bonus Review: A Matter of Life and Death

Peter Carter is a British pilot in the Royal Air Force. His plane gets shot down and as he’s hurtling toward the ground, he realizes he doesn’t have a working parachute. He reaches out to make contact and gets ahold of US Air Force radio operator, June, and they converse for a time before Peter decides to go ahead and eject. However, in the thick English fog, his escort to Heaven is unable to find him, and so he survives. Peter meets June as she is biking her way back home after her shift, and they fall in love. Peter’s escort to Heaven, Conductor 71, finds Peter and tries to convince him to come to Heaven, but Peter wants to appeal his case. Conductor 71 goes to talk to his superiors, giving Peter and June more time together, and returns to tell Peter he has three days to prepare for his appeal. June is convinced that Peter is having visions and takes him to Doctor Reeves, who believes the visions are the result of a brain injury. Reeves then dies in a motorcycle crash, but it makes him eligible to represent Peter in his appeal. At trial, Reeves makes the argument that Peter, through no fault of his own, has been given more time on Earth and during that time has fallen in love and now has a obligation to stay on Earth. The Council question Peter’s and June’s love for one another, and so Reeves has June take the stand and tells her the only way to save Peter’s life is to take his place. She does so without hesitation. The Council then concedes and allows Peter more time on Earth.

This movie was made in order to help repair British-American relations after World War II. The British viewed the Americans getting involved in World War II as too little too late, and the American way of brashness didn’t sit well with the countrymen who had spent the last few years being bombed at and having to ration their food. This film acted as salve by letting the British man win the day and getting the American girl instead of the other way around. It lifts the British up without putting the Americans down by letting June’s willing sacrifice be the climax of the movie. In fact, the only negative portrayal of Americans in the film is the prosecutor for the appeal, named Abraham Farlan, who was supposedly the first man shot by the British during the Revolutionary War, so he has a little reason to not take kindly to Limeys.