Earlier today I confessed my deep and abiding love of bunny rabbits. It’s only natural, then, that I should love this Jimmy Stewart classic.
Stewart portrays a gentle-mannered man named Elwood P. Dowd who lives with his sister and his niece. He’s a relatively stable individual in every way but one – he thinks he has an invisible friend. But this would not be an ordinary invisible friend – this would be a pooka, which is, by translation, a mischievous magical creature commonly found in Celtic mythology. This particular pooka is a six-foot tall (oh, pardon. I err.) A six-foot-three-and-a-half-inch tall rabbit named Harvey. Not surprisingly, Elwood is the only one who can see him, although he continuously introduces people to him.
Elwood’s sister Veta Louise is ashamed of her odd brother and decides that the only way to solve the problem is to have him committed. The scenes in the sanatorium are some of the best in the movie as Dr. Chumley tries to sort out the situation and figure out just who is the insane one in the family. His assistant, Dr. Sanderson, takes a more personal interest in the patient and tries to get to know Elwood a bit better, to discover that he’s a perfectly charming man who’s really not hurting anyone with this innocent delusion. Veta Louise gets a very-well deserved taste of what it’s like to have someone believe you’re insane, and the laughter just goes on from there.
In the end, Veta Louise decides to leave well enough alone, appreciating her brother for who he is. And we get just the smallest little hint that maybe Harvey is real after all. I, for one, always believed in him.
This film may not hold the interest of your younger children, but viewers ages ten and up should enjoy it quite a lot.
This movie was not rated.
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