Search - The Plot Against Harry on DVD

Deep sleeper worth a look

Dennis Littrell | SoCal | 01/29/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This little indie sleeper--made in the sixties, died immediately, was resurrected in the 1989, and is now part of the New Yorker Video series--is distinguished by an original satiric story and a fine, sympathetic performance by Martin Priest who plays the title character Harry Plotnick, a middle-aged New York Jewish racketeer.The film begins as Harry is being released from prison after a nine-month stay. His chauffeur immediately tells him some of his numbers runners have jumped ship and his gambling flotilla is in danger of sinking. They pick up a couple of his lieutenants who speak Spanish (which Harry doesn't understand) and they more or less ignore him. Harry quickly learns that they and his other runners think of him as washed up. Meanwhile he runs into a couple of his ex-wives and discovers that he has grandchildren. Now a rather unusual mid-life crisis ensues for Harry. He wants to give up the rackets and become an upstanding member of the community, to attend weddings and bar mitzvahs. Just how difficult that is and what transpires form the comedic story of the film.Director Michael Roemer who also wrote the script uses authentic New York/New Jersey lifestyle details from the sixties (contemporary to him and therefore without the strained or flashy, obtrusive effect we often encounter in period piece movies) to spin his tale. There is a documentary feel to the film overlaid with light-hearted irony. The camera work is amateurish at times and the abrupt cuts lend a kind of jumpy, somehow authentic feel to the story. This can be seen as a satire of gangster films with the warm-hearted and gentle Harry as a kind of anti-Al Capone.Bottom line: wryly original."

The Movie Woody Allen Wishes He Could Make

N. A. Gilligan | Mid-Hudson Valley | 09/29/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Plot Against Harry keeps the viewer guessing well into the first half hour whether it's a comedy, drama or documentary ...and by then you don't care...it's just interesting. It's funny,fast and kooky. The characters are very real people and I had no trouble imagining that they had full complex lives beyond what was depicted in the film. A classic."

The Plot Against Harry

John Farr | 08/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Shot independently in 1969, "Plot" could not get distribution until re-discovered in the late 1980's and shown at film festivals, where finally, it received its due. Produced on a shoe-string budget with a host of non-actors, "Harry" has more truth, flavor, and character in its pinkie-ring finger than ten of those loud and obvious, big-budget releases currently passing for comedies. A living, breathing tribute to the ingenuity and potential of independent film."