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Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Here's a remarkable surprise, an excellent independent comedy that was filmed in 1970 but shelved
as unreleaseable when audiences didn't laugh and distributors turned their backs. Twenty years later,
the filmmaker made a VHS transfer to show his kids, and the telecine operator thought it was
hilarious. Several film festival successes later, Michael Roemer's The Plot Against Harry
became an independent hit - long after it had been written off as a total failure.
Officially a 1989 release, The Plot Against Harry is like a New York time capsule back to
1969, a droll comedy with a loveably luckless leading man who becomes sympathetic in spite of
himself. Its style has been compared to Woody Allen and John Cassavetes but isn't really like
either of those films. The big disappointment in 1990 was that we would have liked to see the
actors do more work - they're marvelous - but they were all twenty years older.
Synopsis:
Forlorn numbers middleman Harry Plotnick (Martin Priest) gets out of prison to
find his little empire crumbling. Some of his street agents have gone independent and more are
Xing; the Harlem streets he once 'owned' are all black now and prefer a black numbers man.
While wondering how he's going to keep his pampered sister in her swank hotel, Harry hears bad
news about his health just about the same time he runs into his ex, Kay (Maxine Woods). She
left him almost eighteen years before and has two grown daughters for him to meet - one of whom
Harry didn't know existed. Desperate to find another haven before his racket self-destructs, and
concerned by a doctor's report that his heart is in bad shape,
Harry tries to buy his way into a banquet room specializing in weddings and bar mitzvahs He
finds that his new relatives are suspicious of his gambling connections, and that "the new,
generous Harry" is an easy mark for charity mavens. Meanwhile, his old associates are fixing him
good by seeing to it that both the feds and his parole officer get a line on him. Harry keeps
trying to buy his way out of trouble, when he discovers that his not-so-bright assistant has
been keeping a full set of books with his betting contacts and police payoffs - complete with
names.
Harry Plotnik is the sad sack of the New York underworld, a numbers middle-manager who probably
was given the easy job years before and immediately took the easy money and cushy lifestyle as
a given. His slightly sunken face and tired eyes know a good monetary deal from a bad one, but
apart from that he's a fairly confused guy. His racket isn't well organized and he hasn't the
gangster instincts to get things back in order after a short jail term - his underlings just walk
away with the business while he watches helplessly. Several films noir dealt with obsolete
hoodlums being deposed by evolving rackets (I Walk Alone, The Gangster) but Harry simply
realizes he's being eased out by sharper sharpies. Instead of being met with violence, he's just
plain ignored. It's a humiliation he has no choice to accept.
At the same time Harry rediscovers his family, a delightful bunch. His ex-wife Kay is quietly
amused to introduce him to his own grown daughters. One is married to a bookkeeper that gets
entangled in Harry's accounts, ledger books that should have "indict me" written on the cover.
The other daughter is a flighty model who wants to run away to get married.
Harry's only response to life's problems is to throw money at them, a habit Kay knows well. Immediately
after the reunion, he shows up with fur coats for all three of his girls. At first Harry seems
to be ingratiating himself with his estranged relatives because he'll need a new business, but
their attention and company grow on him. Without becoming sentimental in the slightest way, we
see Harry re-orient himself to a happier life.
As a comedy, The Plot Against Harry works almost entirely with droll situations and amusing
character interaction - there are no laugh lines or comedy contrivances. Harry's maladroit chauffeur
isn't very smart, but Harry soon realizes that yelling at him does no good. Leo, the new business
partner (Ben Lang), is an always-smiling and ingratiating fellow who asks Harry to don a yarmulke
in his kosher kitchen, and later tries to help salvage Harry's reputation by letting him join a
cockeyed secret society in a silly ceremony. Harry's newfound philanthropy is clearly an attempt to
buy back his good name, but after seeing the "charming" fund-raisers sink their claws into his
bank accounts, we're soon solidly on his side. In one hilarious scene Harry appears before
a crime-busting committee. He's so confused that he tries to plead the 5th Amendment, and then has
to be reminded that he's a friendly witness.
Harry's drama works itself into mock-tragedy mode, as he thinks that he's in line for an imminent
fatal heart attack. He's stricken while backstage at a telethon, in what might be taken as a parody
of Chaplin's
Limelight. The marvel is in the
perfect casting and consistent tone ... a bit slow but always attuned to character. With modern
audiences now more appreciative of ethnic comedy, The Plot Against Harry now plays like
a lost American classic.
New Video's DVD of The Plot Against Harry is a fine enhanced transfer of a very good B&W
element, showing off the film's crisp camerawork and snappy pace. We really like the actors,
especially leads Martin Priest, Maxine Woods and Ben Lang, and it's a shame that they had to wait
twenty years to see their good work appreciated.
Filmmaker Michael Roemer was already very well-known in film circles as the director of the
earlier independent film Nothing But a Man, a movie about race relations that was reportedly
a favorite of Malcolm X. He and cameraman-partner Robert M. Young appear in a crudely-shot but
entertaining interview piece, telling their entire career story. Roemer says he interviewed real
call-girls and befriended Harlem numbers kingpin Bumpy Johnson as research, and we feel his
disappointment as he explains how test audiences watched the film in bored silence and distributors
walked out of screenings. We're just happy that he didn't junk the film or lose track of it, as
has happened with other "orphaned" pictures like
Incubus. The Plot Against
Harry didn't have stars, big laughs or an easily-communicated genre hook; it wasn't until several
years later that tiny independent pictures like
Hester Street started
finding success despite the dominance of studio product in the theater chains.
On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor,
The Plot Against Harry rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: interview docu
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: May 3, 2005
DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2007 Glenn Erickson
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