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This is not gonna be a review more like a comment... This movie was not one of the best I've ever seen but because of this movie I exist. My parents were in this movie and met for the first time. This prison is in my hometown. Because of this movie and my parents' ability to be extras, (specifically my dad who looked like Robert Redford from Jeremiah Johnson), they moved in together after 4 days. 46 years later they are still married! Ted Cassidy actually walked up to my dad and called him Bob because he thought he was Robert Redford! How cool is that! You can actually see both my parents in their respective roles in this movie especially my dad as he has a kid on his shoulders in the beginning right up against the prison wall.

"Harry and Walter Go to New York" is growing on me. It's not as good as it should have been but it does have a lot going for it. The cast is very good and they all do a nice job. The set design and the costumes are top-notch. But for some reason, "Harry and Walter..." doesn't work as well as it should have. Sometimes a movie's production values and smother it's humor. I think that might have happened here. Also, especially in the first half, the editing seemed off. A lot of the jokes were ruined with too quick cutaways. That said, I do enjoy a lot of this movie. It's not a total write-off. It's definitely worth watching.

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?

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.

This film is one of those films in which the elements fail to come together. It is clearly an attempt to recreate the lightning in a bottle of The Sting some years earlier. However it does not measure up for a number of reasons.

Firstly the truly boring title does the film no favours. It is not surprising the audience stayed away despite this having obvious star power. Like The Sting the main stars are a couple of con men. The comedy is very broad, almost slapstick at times. This tends to undermine any tension in the film. And I'm not convinced that either Caan or Gould have any aptitude for this kind of broad comedy (and neither, I think, do they, if their subsequent career moves are an indication).

However, there are certain times when nastiness creeps in, the most obvious example is when Gould is locked in a safe. Yes, that's comedy gold, having a man almost suffocate to death.

Not only are the con men much more buffoonish than in The Sting, but they are also more contemptible. When we first see them, they are stealing money from ordinary members of the public. Why on earth would we be sympathetic to their escapades from then on? While in The Sting the objective was to rob another (and worse) villain, here the target is a normal bank containing real people's money. An attempt to show the manager as corrupt and lecherous does not undermine the fact that the bank contains real people's money and at a time when banks could go out of business.

Ultimately, no one really cares about these two thieves and whether they succeed in their venture.

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.

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.

This movie is painful to watch except when Diane Keaton is on screen. It was interesting to see Carol Kane and Kathryn Brody in the cast. And what a cast. Many actors I recognized in a really stinky movie. Its beyond me how this project ever got made. Thin plot, not funny, not exciting. I wonder what they were aiming for. The best I can say is its not offensive unless you tire of juvenile humor. Grabbing at girls with big cleavage, chasing around, bad singing.....This movie is just painful to sit through. I watched this because Diane is in it. I guess its to be expected that a person's early work can be less than classic. A person has to start somewhere. I'd suggest skipping this movie.

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.

Forbearingly I did read all few comments over this odd comic picture that really almost sunk Columbia Pictures at it's time, my first watch was in 1989 at TV and never got another fair opportunity to see it again, until the DVD advent, on first time the duo comic leading roles were quite contrived, aside Elliott Gould that has a comic vein.

James Caan was an outsider on Vaudeville theatre, when both are in jail and meet Adam Worth (Michael Caine) as a highly sophisticated burglar, all things seemingly on tracks with a reliable ground, however when they went to New York the premise collapses itself, was clear that both weren't able to do a daring robbery like that even with aid of the tidy journalist Lissa Chestnutt and her workers.

Overall it was the great fail done by Mark Rydell, overlooking the audience's intellect, the movie in my opinion had his roots coming from the early slapstick comedies on thirties like Buster Keaton and later with Three Stooges's standarts, but it applying on the seventies is another story.

However it had their fine moments to reassess as in the fancy restaurant on wine hilarious sequence, selling Adam Worth's hair as souvenirs even for a poor boy and of course the wise method to get free sexual favors from female customers in money troubles as did by Rufus T. Crisp (Charles Durning), anyway yesterday I watched it in hope to get something missed on previous sessions, stay in same degree!!

Resume:

First watch: 1989 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 6.5.

Made on the HELLO DOLLY set, this bumbling farce looks sensational and in some ways is actually as lush as DOLLY itself. With a spectacular cast and some very funny lines - and especially the genuinely hilarious NOBODY'S PERFECT song - H&W somehow just misses being really really good. Any opportunity to see Carol Kane on screen is a must. Barely released in 1976 this film is worth seeing in glorious widescreen, just for the visuals around the DOLLY set. It actually looks as though you will see Streisand singing somewhere in the background. It is probably the only two million dollar film with a three million dollar set. Deserving of a lavish DVD release it could easily become a collectors item for many reasons...if only the comedy was genuinely one of them. The ideas are all there and the cast and the lushness, but you just fell it is all a bit forced.

"Harry and Walter Go to New York" is a film which had a very troubled production. The film went massively overbudget and nearly bankrupted the studio. In addition, the final product was heavily edited...very heavily edited.

Harry and Walter (James Caan and Elliott Gould) are two lousy vaudeville performers and bumbling criminals. After they are sent to prison, they strike up a friendship with a well-mannered gentleman crook, Adam Worth (Michael Caine). But they are so stupid they ending destroying Worth's plans for an upcoming bank robbery...and now Adam hates them. Somehow, the pair manage to escape from prison and when they realize they have a photo of the plans, Harry insists they do the bank robbery instead. The problem is that they are bumbling idiots! And so, with the help of a strange woman and her friends, they intend to clean out this supposedly impossible to rob bank.

The film has many problems...despite some fine actors. Harry and Walter's characters are too one dimensionally stupid...a big problem. Additionally, while these are good actors, they aren't funny actors. Even worse is the lady played by Diane Keaton, as she makes no sense at all and seems as if her part was written by randomly pulling plot elements out of a hat! The only one in the cast who comes out well is Caine...and he's terrific. Overall, a mess of a film that is watchable but not much more...which is amazing as heist films are practically guaranteed to be terrific.

This ranks near the epitome of the comedic experience; perhaps not an intellectually provocative outing, but this is a masterpiece of physical humor. It is unusual to find a film of this nature sporting the stellar cast which appear here - Caan, Gould, Caine and Keaton enjoy a rare chemistry and display a keen sense of timing. If you haven't seen this yet, make it your next film! (Ok, after you finish Lawrence of Arabia, 2001, and West Side Story - but then, make sure you see it!)

I've watched this movie several times. Each time I enjoyed it more. I have looked for it to buy but can't find it. With a cast full of wonderful actors, this movie deserves more credit than it has received. It was funny and clever.

I caught this movie on television after not having seen it in 40 years. I ran it for 2 weeks while working as a projectionist in a second run house in Connecticut at the time. First, you have a wonderful cast. Not only the four principles but it's hard to imagine a bad movie with Charles Durning, Jack Guilford, Val Avery, Leslie Ann Warren and Burt Young in the supporting cast. As improbable as the script is everyone seems to be having fun.

We are in the realm of the classic door-slamming bedroom farce comedies mated to the caper movie with a couple of lovable losers involved in machinations they cannot hope to understand. Consider it as a double bill with Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks. Michael Caine gets to hone a role as comic villain that will find its fuller expression In Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels. Basically, Harry and Walter is good, silly fun. If you want a great caper movie, Watch The Sting or Topkapi.

If you want something that will occasionally have you spitting popcorn while laughing, try this movie, sit back and enjoy yourself. just remember,

Nobody's perfect.

Nobody at all.

more or less stuck in my hotel room on standby duty for five days during queenly coronation celebrations many moons ago, i found this movie on the hotel network and watched it over and over again. and then some on a parr with :

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The Three Amigos this movie is deliciously absurd And not only James Khan and Elliot Gould but Michael Cain is in the cast with Diane Keaton Cannot believe the guy who gave this a 5.4 rating has even sat down for the first five minutes cos if he had he wouldn't have ever left his seat unless the building was burning down and he certainly would not have given anything less than an 8

Netflicks has still not found this gem guess I am gonna have to go out and buy it but how