The Plot Against Harry

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.

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This movie is a gem. In plot, scripting, acting and direction, there is wit and verisimilitude. It's a favorite of mine that deserves to be more widely known.

The 'hero' is a small time numbers runner who returns home after a stretch in prison to find lots of changes on the 'job' and at home. His life becomes more and more complicated as he copes with his new life. There's a clever ending.

I give it 'only' 9 of 10 only because it's not 'a 100 best of all time' film. Still, it's one of my favorites. I saw it once on its release, and spent a lot of time tracking it down for a second view. The effort was worth it.

If Diane Arbus made a comedy from a script by Ernest Lehman and Cliffford Odets, the result would LOOK a lot like The Plot Against Harry. This is an icy-hearted comedy with scarcely a normal-looking human being in sight. Nearly everyone is some sort of New York Jewish grotesque. And yet there are dribs and drabs of sympathetic characterization throughout, as well as a fascinating and broad sociological survey of a range of urban types. We move easily from gangster-limo to garmento fashion-show, to a heart-charity telethon where an impossibly bland crooner entertains on the improbably shoddy set of a TV studio. By the end, you're rooting for Harry, a small-time hood with the personality of a pickled whitefish. This movie is one of my all-time favorites.

The Plot Against Harry is about a smalltime Jewish mobster who is released from prison and realizes his numbers racket has mostly fallen apart in his absence. Most of his crew has abandoned him to work for other local thugs, except for his loyal but often inept driver. At first he tries to regain control and call in a few favors, but it becomes more and more clear his time on the streets is up. Harry starts casting about for something else and maybe going legit, and his ex-brother-in-law convinces him to buy a Jewish event hall and catering business. It's through seeing the various Jewish ceremonies - weddings, bar mitzvahs, even a circumcision, that Harry starts to feel more connected with the Jewish community.

Meanwhile, he tries to reconnect on some level with his ex-wife, as well as the children he never really knew, none of whom want anything to do with him. There's a sense they're all politely trying to avoid each other but can't stop bumping into one another, once even literally, as he runs into their car. He somewhat reminds me of Gene Hackman's character in The Royal Tenenbaums, and I wouldn't be surprised if that film took inspiration from this one.

Harry is then informed he has an "enlarged heart" and isn't sure just how much longer he has to live, accelerating his desire for redemption. But getting on the straight and narrow has a lot of twists and turns.

To describe this film to a modern viewer, it has a wryness not unlike some Coen Bros films like Fargo or Burn After Reading, in that it takes a close look at the mundane and everyday, and finds humor and a story worth telling. There's occasionally also some Wes Anderson elements of charming and surreal set pieces and characters. Yet it must be said, this film is far more understated than any Coen Bros or Wes Anderson film. Additionally, as it's an indie film with some rough edges, it's not always obvious what we're supposed to take from each scene, but that's also part of its charm. All of this added up to a film that struggled to find an audience in 1969, but did lead to some indie success when it was released two decades later.

Comparisons aside, The Plot Against Harry is a good film but not a great one. It gets a bit too much praise because critics and film buffs just love when a film like this surfaces and offers something fresh, which it legitimately was in 1989. With the passage of time it takes on some period charm as well with a sweet and sentimental look at Jewish life in the late '60s.

It's hard to point to any one particular thing The Plot Against Harry really excels at but likewise it never drags and the sum of the parts kept me watching and rooting for Harry till the end.

The Plot Against Harry is an extraordinary, forgotten film that pops up from time to time in revival houses and late night television and is not to be missed. It's as if Scorcese did comedy - a great slice of criminal life and the true criminal mind - very reminiscent of today's "Sopranos" on HBO.