AWARDS AND HONORS
Harvey was nominated for 2 Academy Awards: Jimmy Stewart as Best Actor, and Josephine Hull for Best Supporting Actress. Stewart lost to Jose Ferrer for
Cyrano de Bergerac, but Hull took home the award.
Harvey received 3 Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress (Josephine Hull), Best Actor (James Stewart) and Best Motion Picture Drama. Again, Hull won in her category, but the film lost in its other two categories, Stewart losing once again to Jose Ferrer.
Harvey was named #35 in the AFI list of the top 100 comedy films of all time.
THE CRITIC'S CORNER HARVEY (1950)
"...if you're for warm and gentle whimsy, for a charmingly fanciful farce and for a little touch of pathos anent the fateful evanescence of man's dreams, then the movie version of
Harvey is definitely for you...Indeed, so freely flowing is the screenplay which Mrs. Chase and Oscar Brodney have prepared, so vivid and droll is the direction which Henry Koster has given it and, particularly, so darling is the acting of James Stewart, Josephine Hull and all the rest that a virtually brand new experience is still in store for even those who saw the play." The
New York Times.
"James Stewart's Elwood does lack some of the magic of Frank Fay's wizened creation, perhaps because Mr. Stewart just doesn't look like the kind of man who ever spent much time in a barroom. Then too, as the years lurch on, Mr. Stewart has an increasing though understandable inclination to just be himself." --
Saturday Review.
"Stewart would seem perfect casting for the character so well does he convey the idea that escape from life into a pleasant half world existence has many points in its favor." --
Variety.
"An amiably batty play with splendid lines is here transferred virtually intact to the screen and survives superbly thanks to understanding by all concerned, though the star is as yet too young for a role which he later made his own." -
Halliwell's Film & Video.
"The film...sometimes seems static, but that's more than compensated for by the wonderful dialogue. Stewart's character, Elwood P. Dowd, is a gentle, hopeful, good-natured alcoholic, something very rarely seen in a Hollywood film, and this performance is one of his best. Interestingly, you never actually see Stewart having a drink in the film." -
The Rough Guide to Cult Movies.
"Even if you don't believe in Harvey, it would be hard not to believe in Jimmy Stewart -- which is just as well, since I don't know what other actor could have made Elwood work. Harvey, of course, gives a flawless performance; he seems to have a lucky rabbit's foot....the movie's sensibility has, post-
King of Hearts and
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, dated badly: Chase's broad, broad parody of psychiatry finds the asylum (hilariously represented by Cecil Kellaway, Charles Drake, and a pre-Maytag Jesse White) ready to commit respectable citizens at the drop of a hat. But Stewart and his bunny buddy turn
Harvey into 14-carrot gold." - Jeffrey Gantz,
Boston Phoenix.
"What makes Harvey great is the fact that it's equally enjoyable as a piece of comedic fluff and as slyly intelligent social commentary aimed squarely at people who try to enforce conformity, judge those who are different, and define what's sane behaviour and what isn't." - Brian Webster,
Apollo Film Guide.
"The plot of the film is perpetually silly, but James Stewart, one of American's greatest actors, adds an extra layer of complexity to the movie to give it its meaning." - Silver Screen Reviews.
"Coming at the time it did, the film represents an upbeat post-War mentality - the desire for a giddy gayness, the abandoning of reason and society, and a celebration of eccentric individuality. It is quite amazing that the film's message, which stands up in favour of drinking, managed to get past the Hays Code though.
The humour in the film comes with marvellous understatement." - Richard Scheib, The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review.
Compiled by Andrea Passafiume & Jeff Stafford
