Harvey Middleman, Fireman

Ernest Pintoff won an Academy Award for an amusing animated short, THE CRITIC (1963). Later, he directed a few truly forgettable comedies (such as DYNAMITE CHICKEN and LUNCH WAGON) and an interesting police thriller, BLADE (1973). He also directed a slew of TV episodes. In this, his first feature film, Pintoff created an offbeat comedy that has a cartoon-like quality and is based on the clichés of everyday life. It shows Harvey Middleman (Eugene Troobnick), a fireman in New York City who is married with two kids and a dog, in work and at home. He gets into a brief romance with a young woman (Patricia Harty) he saves from a fire. This latter complication sends Harvey to analyst Hermione Gingold, who basically plays her cuckoo-woman character but offers some funny moments. We also visit Harvey in dreams, flashbacks to his youth and occasionally he talks directly to the audience.

In many ways, HARVEY MIDDLEMAN, FIREMAN predates the neurotic slash nebbish comedies that Woody Allen would later make. Harvey's plight, however, has the look and feel of a TV sitcom stretched to feature length. The jokes are clever and funny but the movie is quite forgettable. Completists will note an early role by character actor Charles Durning, who in 1965 was looking quite trim and fit.

Small budget and inadequate film distribution held this movie back but it is a little gem.

Seen in Chicago circa 1965 and never been around since.Story of a henpecked fireman living a mundane existence in 1960's suburbia.

Each of the characters represents a personalty type that we have all come across in real life.

The humor comes from the exaggerated antics of each of these characters.

These antics are played out in Middleman's home life and also at work. Filmed in color at nondescript locations that could be anywhere in the United States

"Im Harvey Middleman. I'm a fireman. My mother, she wanted me to be a doctor" Harvey Middleman, who loves his job, and saving "pussycats". He shows up to the firehouse and finds all his colleagues sleeping- How can they be sleeping? "They must not like their job...." It kind of reminds one of a bit of a Walter Mitty plot, and several scenes make one burst out in laughter, for instance Harvey at home, after a long days work, and his wife asks him if he's taken out the garbage. He tells her that she can take out the garbage, and says: "All I wanted to do was come home, relax, and have some 'baby lamb chops'" A person can't over-use the word gem to describe this cute movie. It is not a deep kind of thing, nor is it heavy. It does stick with you, forever, with fond memories.