Harry and Walter Go to New York

A thoroughly well-made and well-paced movie, with a wonderful score, both in the lead characters' signature song "Nobody's Perfect" and in the incidental music. James Caan and Elliot Gould do a great job of playing the low comedy foils of high comedy master Michael Caine.

Excellent for kids, too...although there are touches of violence, romance, and illegal behavior, they are all mild, and it's got a delightfully old-fashioned morality to it.

This is just a good, clean, fun movie with an excellent cast. It was shot back in the 1970's. It is amazing that the movie did not do better at the box office, because of all the stars that were cast in it. It is interesting to note that this movie was shot mostly in Mansfield, Ohio at the Mansfield Reformatory. Since then, Shawshank Redemption and Con Air were filmed there as well. The prison used for the movie has since been replaced by a new one and is now an historical site, open to the public. I think you will find some good laughs here. It is not brain surgery and a great way to experience some top stars in one package. I was an extra in this movie, playing both a prison guard and a prisoner. Chasing James Caan and Elliot Gould was a hoot. The cast and crew of this movie had a great time filming it. I might add that the director, Mark Rydell, went on to direct the movie,On Golden Pond.

The idea was good but the outcome was bad, 2 quite stupid song and dance conmen, with the help of a printing team gang, frustrate a top bank robber and pull his heist before him, their bumbling plot worked but the film didn't. A very unlikely story.

This film has a great cast, leading was Caan & Gould, with excellent suport. mostly unused, if they had more substantial roles it could have been better, Diane Keaton was probably the best, closely followed by Jack Gilford, always a class act. Caan & Gould, and Michael Caine probably overdo their roles, possibly by direction, the film was well made apart from photography which was poor.

The trouble was with the conversion of the story to screen, and it did not work, trying to rob a bank in between doing song and dance routines was not good on the transfer to screen, so maybe a good idea, but in retrospect not, its probably why no film like it has been made since.

I gave it a 5 for the acting and intrigue.

I saw this movie when it was first released, then again on television sometime in the Eighties. Why this film is largely forgotten is beyond me. For that matter, why are some of the most entertaining films of the Seventies collecting dust, while the critics continue to insist that we bow and scrape to pretentious self-absorbed WoodyBogdanovichMazurskyAltman? Anyhoo, this film is funny -- maybe not side-splitting, but certainly a lot more entertaining than many films calling themselves comedies. It's atmospheric, with that yellow/sepia look Coppola first introduced in Godfather II. It's well-acted: James Caan is a great comic actor -- let's face it, a great actor, period. Michael Caine is especially good as the kid glove villain. Almost nothing here to offend anybody, (but kids under age 10 might have trouble following it). And after all these years, I still remember the "owls who" joke.

When I saw Harry and Walter Go to New York in 1976, I liked it because it was fun seeing serious actors playing comedy. It had Diane Keaton, who, back in the day, made my gums sweat. I had no idea what was in store for me when I saw it again as a middle-aged adult.

It was so very awful. Same fine cast to appreciate, but the movie just sat there like a blob of cat puke on the rug that not even the chihuahua will scarf up.

Yup, that bad.

And, considering how it went so over-budget it almost sank Columbia Pictures, you would think, you would hope that there would be some evidence the money had been used effectively. You would want your entertainment dollars (three and a half of them, back then) to be for something.

You would be wrong.

Aren't we lucky that, for some reason or another, you never see Harry and Walter Go to New York offered on even the Later than Late Show?