HARVEY

US, 1950, 104 minutes, Black and White.
James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow, Charles Drake, Cecil Kellaway.
Directed by Henry Koster.

Harvey is a pleasant fable for adults based on Mary Chase's Pulitzer prize-winning play. Some of its scenes and acting are a little bit old-style now, but it is a fantasy of faith in goodness and happiness. James Stewart fits the part of eccentric tippler, Elwood P. Dowd, perfectly and enjoys the company of his best friend, six feet three and a half inches of white rabbit - Harvey, who, alas, is invisible to almost everyone else, including ourselves. Elwood P. Dowd is one of those fools for goodness' sake who shame us gently out of our normal, intolerant humanity.

1. What is a fable and what is the function of a fable? Why is Harvey a fable?

2. By what standards is Elwood P. Dowd insane?

3. Compare Dowd's sanity, peace of mind, goodness and happiness with his sister Veta's anxiety and ambitions, Myrtle Mae's frustrations. Wilson's brutality. Dr. Sanderson's arrogant know-all-ism.

4. What does the film say about what it is to be a 'normal' human being? Discuss the taxi-driver's comments about bringing his patients to the sanatorium and their kindly fantasies and taking them home cranky. back-seat drivers.

5. Dowd says he fought the battle with reality and won out over it. Why did Dowd invent Harvey? what need did Harvey supply for him?

6. The film rather heavily satirises psychiatrists and sanatoriums. Dr. Chumly had given up seeing patients and yearned for Harveylike happiness. Where does the film say happiness comes from? Is the film fair to psychiatrists?

7. What is the point of the audience's not being able to see Harvey (although we are helped by the portrait)? With whom. therefore, are we identified?