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Actors: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Wagner, Shelley Winters
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Harper |
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This movie, based on Ross Macdonald's "The Moving Target" and directed by Jack Smight in 1965, earned the 1967 Edgar Allan Poe award.
Lawyer Albert Graves asks Private Lew Harper to see his wealthy client Elaine Sampson. Mrs. Sampson wants Harper to find her husband who disappeared two days before. She's sure that he had a crush on a young girl and is now spending a lot of money for her. Harper starts to question Mr. Sampson daughter, Miranda, who should marry Graves but is actually flirting with Allan Taggert, Sampson's Pilot. The next day, Mrs. Sampson receives a letter from her husband : she must sell obligations up to $500,000 and waits for the kidnappers's call.
Harper finds, in Mr. Sampson's room at the Bel-Air hotel in L.A., a photography of Fay Estabrook, a former starlet, and decides to meet her. Fay is now an alcoholic and fat woman who's decorated Mr. Sampson's room at the Bel-Air. She tells Harper that she used to meet Mr. Sampson's at the Piano Bar, a bar of ill fame. The detective meets there the singer Betty Fraley, a former drug addict, and is thrown out of the bar a few minutes later. Now, Mrs. Sampson and the police have decided to follow the instructions of the kidnappers and they leave the money in a deserted industrial spot. Harper is waiting for the kidnappers but can't prevent there the murder of Eddie Frailey who's murdered by his sister Betty who leaves with the money.
--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Harper |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 60%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Time/Era of Movie:
- 1960's-1970's
Crime & Police Story?
Yes
Crime story:
- criminal kidnappers
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- private investigator
Age:
- 20's-30's
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- short/standard straight (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Events of movie makes character more...
- cynical
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair style
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- average build (man)
How much in movie?
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Female
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- artist
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 20%
Hair color
- red
Hair type
- (woman) long straight
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- druggie/wino disease
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- California
Mountains/Cliffs
Yes
City?
Yes
City:
- Los Angeles
Misc setting
- fancy mansion
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately messy visuals of dead
Movie makes you feel...
- excited
How many deaths in film?
- 3-4
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references only
- kissing
Kind of violence:
- guns
Unusual forms of death
- dropped from large heights
If Soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE...
- Jazz/r&b
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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