Harper (1966)

Starring: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Janet Leigh, Robert Wagner, Shelley Winters, Robert Webber, and Strother Martin
Grade: A

The most underrated moment in Harper had to have been when Harper and Albert are chasing Betty after she steals his car, and Harper being confident in being able to catch her because he hasn’t changed a spark plug in his car for 30,000 miles, and the car will fall apart eventually.

Genius stuff.

Summary

In Los Angeles, California, private investigator Lew Harper (Newman) wakes up just before his alarm, gets off his pull-out couch, turns off his TV, and begins his morning ritual by insanely putting ice cubes in a water-filled sink and sticking his face directly into it. Using some discarded filters from the garbage, he makes himself some terrible coffee and exits his office to start the day.

Harper drives to the mansion of Elaine Sampson (Bacall) in Santa Theresa and is let in by her servants and shown where to go. When the maid tries to walk him into the house, he spots a woman diving into the pool and stares, though the maid makes sure he stays on track. Finally, he enters Elaine’s room where she is sun tanning under artificial light. Harper is there because one of Elaine’s lawyers Albert Graves (Arthur Hill) called on her behalf because she needed him. Once he turns down a drink, she tells Harper that he comes on recommendation of Albert. Apparently, Harper and Albert have known each other since Albert became DA and are good friends. In any event, Elaine wants Harper to find her husband Ralph Sampson. She hasn’t tried missing persons because she doesn’t want publicity and neither would Ralph. Plus, Ralph has an abnormal fear of the police. Elaine wants Harper to find Ralph and tell her which female he’s with. Elaine doesn’t know who it could be and also is honest in saying she has no intention of divorcing Ralph because she intends to outlive him. She used to love him before they were married, but the week after they took their vows, Elaine had an accident that left her disabled and he started cheating. She tries to get Harper to ask about her injury, but he deems it unnecessary before asking when Ralph disappeared. It was only yesterday. Their pilot Allan Taggert (Wagner) flew Ralph down from Las Vegas. When they landed, Ralph gave him “the slip”. The problem with Ralph is that he drinks a lot and gets “sloppy sentimental”, giving things away. Last time, he gave away a whole mountain to a semi-nude religious nut from Los Angeles. Elaine doesn’t want Ralph giving away anything more and wants him to be found quickly. Obviously, she’d like to know if he’s with a woman as well. Using her mirror, Elaine notices her employee Felix (Eugene Iglesias) lurking in her doorway and calls him out for this repeat offense. Once she sends Felix away to get her lunch, she tells Harper that he can get more details from Allan since he’s by the pool.

She will leave the fee up to Albert to settle.

Once he confirms he drove up from LA, Elaine tells him to leave his car there and Felix will drive him to Albert’s office. It’s only 10 minutes away. Immediately, she says goodbye to him, so Harper has to remind her that it would help if he knew what Ralph looked like. She gives her a picture and sends him on his way. Harper walks down the stairs and asks the maid if he can use the phone. She shows him the one in the main room, but he wants one with a little more privacy. Unfortunately, that’s the one the help is supposed to use, so he doesn’t have a choice. Harper calls divorce lawyer Fred (Richard Carlyle) and asks if his wife Susan (Leigh) is in. He wants him to relay the message that he can’t make it because he was called in for a situation. Susan is in the room. She can hear him say this and is furious because their divorce was going to be settled today. Harper tries to explain everything with Albert in hopes that she will understand, but she’s not listening, especially because Harper has conveniently missed previous meetings for their divorce proceedings on account of something coming up before. She thinks Harper is doing this purposely because he’s hoping she will reconsider, but she’s not changing her mind. Harper can hear her rantings and asks for Fred to give her the phone, but she refuses it. As Fred holds the phone out, she yells into it that she doesn’t love Harper anymore and even if he were to be shot in an alley, she’d feel “a little sorry sure, but that’s all, just a little sorry”. Above all else, she tells Fred to relay to Harper that he “is not loved”. Harper goes outside to the pool to meet Allan and Elaine’s daughter Miranda (Pamela Tiffin). For some reason, Miranda is dancing on the diving board by herself. Wanting to talk to them, Harper turns off the music, and Miranda goes on this spiel about Elaine going to the extreme for everything like hiring Harper.

Next, she suggests Elaine is faking her paralysis from falling off a horse and it’s all psychological, arguing that it gave her an out to retire from competition and did it intentionally. Though that’s a bit wild, Miranda does have a point when she brings up how extreme it is to call on Harper for help when Ralph has only been gone a day. Pivoting, Harper goes back to Ralph and asks about the details of his disappearance. Allan says they flew in the day before at 3:30PM from Vegas and landed at Van Nuys airport. He left Ralph at the administration building because Ralph said he wanted to call the Bel-Air Hotel for a limousine. Miranda adds that he has a bungalow there. Allan taxied the plane to their hangar and tied it down. When he got back to the entrance, Ralph wasn’t there. He waited and waited some more at the Bel-Air Hotel. Ralph said he was staying the night, but he didn’t have any luggage. Miranda doesn’t think this means anything because Ralph keeps a lot of clothes at the bungalow and likes to pick up fast. Next, Allan adds that it took 15-20 minutes to bed down the plane, and Harper knows this wouldn’t be enough time for a limo to get there from the Bel-Air. It’s possible he never called the hotel, and someone met him at the airport. With this in mind, and a few sandwiches he grabs for the road, Harper heads out to see Albert. Allan leaves Miranda to accompany him there, and that pisses her off. Of course, her first response is to start angry dancing on the diving board once Harper turns the music back on. Felix drives Harper and Allan. When Allan asks if they have met, Felix presses the button for the window to close between the front and backseat. Allan notes that Felix is always listening, though Felix confirms they are friends when he phones him from the backseat. Harper changes the subject to ask why Allan is rough with Miranda, but he passes it off as her being adolescent and he can’t help the way she feels.

Additionally, he has a woman of his own. Harper then questions the relationship between Miranda and Ralph. Everything was fine until recently, as Ralph had pressured her to get married to Albert. Following this, Harper meets with Albert in Albert’s office. He tells Harper that he talked Elaine into hiring him because he thinks Ralph needs the protection. He’s worth $20 million and he’s an alcoholic. On top of that, he might be losing it, bringing up Claude (Martin), the “holy man” Ralph gave the mountain to. When Harper brings up Elaine’s theory of Ralph running off with another woman, Albert says it’s not true. He just convinced her of this because she wouldn’t have moved a finger if she just thought Ralph’s life was in danger. They can’t call the police either because if Ralph found out Albert did that, he’d fire him. Regardless, Ralph is a “moneymaker”. According to Albert, Ralph has a certain dedication to making money at all costs. Next, he brings up Ralph’s son. He was a pilot who was killed a few years back, and Albert thinks this is when he started losing his mind. This led to Ralph hiring Allan, but why would he need a pilot if they are less than a 2-hour drive from LA? Albert sees this as an unnecessary expense, and it’s hard to disagree with him. After all this, he brings up Miranda and he’s infatuated with her, showing Harper a framed picture of her that he has in his desk. Harper has no problem jokingly reminding him of the stark difference in age between the two, but he can see Albert is hung up on her and doesn’t press too far. Albert even asks if she said anything about him or mentioned his name when Harper met her. Harper admits she didn’t, but he chalks it up to the fact that they didn’t talk for very long, which puts Albert’s mind at ease. It’s obvious he’s in love.

Harper gives him his going rate of $2000 flat against $100 a day and expenses, and it’s accepted, with Albert adding that he wants Harper to “mention my virtues to Miranda”. The two leave the office, and Miranda is waiting for them. She tells Harper she will accompany him to LA. Albert sees them off and greets Miranda, but she barely acknowledges him. Harper, Allan, and Miranda fly to LA together, and they go to the Bel-Air Hotel. Right away, Harper asks the receptionist if they sent a limo to the Van Nuys airport for Ralph, and it turns out they didn’t. Apparently, he did call for one initially, but he called back and cancelled. The receptionist knew it was him because he’s been coming there for years. Harper goes over to Miranda and Allan, and Miranda says Ralph hasn’t been there in a month, as she just asked the desk clerk. The three go to Ralph’s bungalow, and Allan is already talking about going out for a bit and seeing some friends. When Miranda suggests they do something, Allan turns her down and calls her a drag. Harper goes into the master bedroom and is startled at the sight of it. It’s painted in a dark purple with an astrological theme and a circular bed in the center of the room. Miranda brings up that ever since her brother died, she has tried to do her best to argue Ralph out of this focus on astrology. As Harper searches through the room for clues, Miranda tries to flirt with him and invites him on the bed. He doesn’t entertain it because he’s working, but he decides to mess with her after she won’t stop. He turns off the lights and tells her to seal the room, and she jumps off the bed. He turns the lights back on and gets back to work after pointing out how he got her. He finds a framed picture of Fay Estabrook (Winters) and asks if Miranda knows her, but she doesn’t. Allan does though, and he confirms Ralph has been seen with her. He knows where she hangs out too. Looking at the picture, Harper sees her as a young starlet and wonders what happened to her.

Allan laughs before telling him she got fat.

Utilizing a fake southern accent, Harper approaches Fay at a bar when she’s eating. He asks for an autograph for his daughter but then admits it’s for him once he starts flirting with her. Fay is floored pretty easily. After this, they dance, and she drinks all night. By the end of it, Fay is drunk, and Harper takes her back to the Bel-Air. They hang in the lobby bar for a bit, with Fay talking about how she frequents the place with Ralph. Since she thinks Harper is jealous, she tries to ease his mind with further details like how Ralph is in Vegas, and how she only does his astrological charts and a little bit of interior decorating, confirming that the bedroom was her idea. Privately, she admits Ralph is her oldest friend, but he’s not a nice man and has a weird personality. As they continue to talk, Harper’s eyes glance over to see Miranda’s right when she walks in. They share eye contact, so Harper excuses himself to talk to her and Allan outside. She wants Allan to take Miranda out of there, but the two tell Harper about how Elaine wants advice. She just got a special delivery letter from Ralph. Ralph told her to tell Albert to cash in some bonds and get some money ready, about a half million in cash. Harper advises them to get the money and wait until they get proof that Ralph is still alive. It’s a possibility they have to face. He tells Allan to take Miranda, and he goes back inside the lobby to Fay. Since she’s yelling at the Mexican house band to play “La Cucaracha”, he takes her back to her home where she passes out on the couch. Harper uses this time to search her place. He gets to her dresser and finds a lot of money. Before he has time to think, the phone rings, so he’s forced to answer it to avoid waking Fay up. On the phone, Betty (Julie Harris) assumes Harper is a “Mr. Troy” on the call, and he goes with it. He responds to her questions in a one-word response or noise type of way to where he doesn’t have to guess how the guy sounds, and it works.

Betty has heard Fay went to the Bel-Air with “some guy”, and they don’t want him there at the house when “the truck goes through, so get rid of him”. She is at The Piano, the aptly named piano bar. When Harper asks if Ralph is there with her, it blows his cover and Betty asks who he is, so he hangs up. Harper attempts to walk into a different room, but Fay’s husband Dwight Troy (Webber) points a gun at him. Slipping back into his southern accent, Harper acts as if he was Fay’s escort for the night and she was the one who went into her room, which is why the light was on. Harper continues and says he didn’t know she was married, how he’s an insurance salesman, and how he’d like to leave. Troy isn’t jealous in the least bit, but he does threaten Harper because he’s a stranger on his property and has him leave. Right after, Harper takes a taxi to The Piano. Betty plays her set on the piano, and Harper sends a written note through the waiter to her. Once she’s done and the music changes to a more upbeat dance vibe, she heads over and sits down with him. Right away, she thinks he’s a cop and assumes he’s in narcotics, saying right away that she’s clean now. He never corrects her. He just says he wants to know about Ralph, and Betty is able to remember his voice from the phone. She denies knowing anything, so Harper tells her he can convince his friends at the narcotics squad that the tracks in her arm are fresh. This is enough for Betty to relent and admit she knows Ralph. Sometimes, he comes to The Piano to get drunk. She doesn’t know anything else, though he tries to press her for more. She doesn’t budge and calls for bouncer Puddler (Roy Jenson) to punch him, which he does. He drags Harper through the bar and outside, disarms him, and beats the shit out of him until Allan shows up and knocks Puddler out with Harper’s gun. Allan managed to show up because he started checking out some of Ralph’s hangout spots after talking a buddy out of his car and putting Miranda to bed. The Piano was one of them, and he was coming in when Harper was coming out.

As Harper recovers, he only reconfirms to Allan that he thinks Ralph was kidnapped. He’s not sure who did it, but it could be Troy or Fay. With this in mind, he has Allan drive back to Fay’s house. He lets Allan in on the phone call he intercepted and how he thinks Ralph could be in the truck that they didn’t want him to see. The two get close to the house, and Harper can see through the window that Fay is still sleeping. They get to the door, and Allan excitedly suggests he break the door down, so Harper encourages it. After two failed attempts, Harper just opens the door. Next, he gives Allan the gun, has him wait outside, and wants him to let Harper know if the truck or anyone else comes by. Harper goes inside and into Fay’s room, only to see that the money in the drawer he saw earlier is gone. Just then, Harper hears gunshots, and he runs outside. Allan saw the truck and tried to blow out a tire but failed. Harper jumps the gate and sees the truck in the distance. The truck turns around and drives straight toward him. Harper tries to flag it down, but the driver tries to hit him, so he jumps out of the way. It keeps going, and Harper jumps the gate again and onto the door, but the guy knocks him off. Allan helps him up, and Harper takes note of the tracks from the tires. The next day, Harper sees Elaine back at the mansion, and she confirms Ralph’s handwriting on the letter. Harper talks about how Ralph may be kidnapped, and this is a federal offense, but Elaine is insistent this can’t involve the police, especially because she’s not sure all of Ralph’s business dealings are completely legal. Also, Elaine isn’t entirely moved by the kidnapping implications and suggests he’s traveling the world with some random girl and needed spending money.

However, Harper is serious with her. He thinks Ralph has been kidnapped and the note was dictated, especially on account of the bad company he keeps. Elaine laughs at the thought because she could care less about Ralph’s wellbeing, so Miranda interrupts to talk shit to her for being a narcissistic bitch. Elaine shoots right back at her failures to win over Allan. As the two argue, Harper excuses himself. Right after, Elaine talks about how Miranda isn’t loved, and she responds by making fun of her wrinkles. Harper goes to Albert and asks him to call in some favors to the LAPD to check on any black limos rented or stolen in the last three days, as Albert puts the stacks of cash Ralph asked for in his safe. Harper also asks if they can have someone check out The Piano. Surprisingly, Albert knows this bar as Troy’s place. Intrigued, Harper asks how Albert knows him. Albert had to take some papers to Las Vegas once for Ralph to sign. He and Troy were gambling. He seems okay, but people “have a habit of dying around him”. Though Albert is a veteran, he’s not too keen on using his gun, but he has it ready. He’s anxious however and is startled to learn that Harper isn’t staying once he suggests Albert get a cop there to keep an eye on the money. Harper has bigger things to worry about though, as he still wants to check out the mountain that Ralph gave away. Just then, Miranda walks in, flipping out about Elaine. When Harper asks how to get to the mountain, Albert offers to diagram it for him, but Miranda says she’ll take him because she is dying to get out of the house anyway. She exits the room to change, and Albert can’t help but notice her light flirting with Harper. Harper messes with Albert a bit, but he’s bothered by it as he still really likes her.

Harper and Miranda drive up to the mountain. On the way, Harper dodges questions about his divorce. Miranda changes the subject to ask why he does this line of work, and he gets offended and goes off about how world politics inspires him, though he’s just messing with her, and she doesn’t get it. Next, she asks if there is anything wrong with her, and Harper admits she shouldn’t fall for any good-looking man that walks by. She’s offended by this and tries to insult him, even calling him out for messing with Fay. Harper has to tell her that he got the alcoholic drunk for information, and it was nothing more than that. When she continues, Harper is uncaring to her attitude and sarcastically responds until they get to the top of the mountain where this temple is. After observing a small statuette, they walk further into the open white building where there is a large white statue of a head with a red cross painted on one side of it above the entrance. Inside is the leader of the temple Claude. Holding his bird, Claude tells them he hasn’t seen Ralph. Harper tries to search through some things, but Claude won’t let him walk onto holy ground because he hasn’t been “purified”. As Claude goes on about how he used to be a sinful person and that Miranda can attest to that, Harper asks if he can look around. Claude doesn’t want him to because he is risking the wrath of the sun god, but Harper calls himself “Lionhearted” and does so anyway. Claude follows him around and tries to explain things further while also explaining how he’s not a charlatan. Harper doesn’t find much other than a pot of beans being cooked in the center platform of the room for guests, so he goes to the outside of the temple. Claude follows him and pleads with him not to deride him to the Sampson family because the temple was the beginning of his life. He knows he may look ridiculous to Harper, but he just wants to spread love around the world.

Even so, Harper isn’t entirely convinced of Claude’s innocence. After Claude says “It varies” in regard to the number of followers he has, Harper is about to leave before he stops and notices the tire tracks in the dirt. It’s the same as the tracks he saw on Troy’s property. The wheels are turning in Harper’s brain, as this mystery is starting to include a lot more key figures than he initially thought.

My Thoughts:

Based on Ross Macdonald’s first Lew Archer novel The Moving Target, Paul Newman gets his turn to play a private detective in the intricate but entertaining Harper. Though Archer fans may have some trouble loving every aspect of the film adaptation of the character, especially since they didn’t even use the same last name because of a legal issue, there is no doubt that they will be satisfied with this take on Macdonald’s novel. The characters are well defined, the cast is great, Johnny Mandel’s moody score is a great fit for the story, and the complicated web of untold truths our hero finds himself in is one worth watching unfold.

Though Luke Jackson of Cool Hand Luke is Paul Newman’s quintessential role, Lew Harper is right up there with his upper echelon of characters, and it’s arguably his most underrated. Especially compared to the thousands of others during this period of cinema, Harper is one of my favorite movie heroes. As I’ve stated before, I have a soft spot for private detective characters, film noir, neo-noir, and the mystery umbrella as a whole. The key to making any of these films work however is the protagonist. To give a movie coming out of this genre a lasting impression, this will always be the head of the snake. A lot of these detectives are similar in personality, look, and motivation, which is why Newman’s Harper is so cool in comparison. Already with the iconic actor’s unmatched charisma, good looks, and charm, Lew Harper is a lot different from most hardboiled detective characters in that he has a sense of humor. Much like the sunny California landscape he calls home, the gum-chewing Harper is a fun personality that captures the area and the time period well. It’s different, and Newman makes the smallest of details work to distance this detective from loads of others. Never before do you see a main character chewing gum being such a beloved character trait, but Paul Newman doing it as Harper is so effortlessly cool, that it’s something you think about anytime you chew gum yourself. You want to be like Harper because Newman is cool enough to make such a normal thing a statement, a mark of a true movie star. It’s stuff like this and small details like him turning down a drink from Elaine upon their first meeting because he doesn’t drink before lunch. It may seem like a minor thing for those unfamiliarized with the genre, but for fans, it separates Harper from the lot of them. Even Elaine is intrigued by this because she thought he’s a detective and it’s typical for people in his line of work, but he passes this off as being a “new type” of detective and it’s true. Lew Harper is a new type of detective, an intelligent, sarcastic, Californian who just wants to work his case and mess around a bit while doing it.

I love that about the character. He has a relaxed vibe about him even in the most stressful of situations, and though it doesn’t seem like it at first, every move Harper makes is a calculated one. He never lets anyone know his next move either like when he’s scanning Claude’s temple for clues and after Claude asks where the harm is, he calmly states, “Nowhere”. He’s always under control or has an idea on where to go next, even when it may not seem like it. It’s something the audience can sense too, as the story progresses, and we observe the detective go about his everyday business. The character is written well enough for us to understand the intellect and low-key style of Harper, but it’s the finer points of Newman’s performance that align with this and present to the viewer why Harper knows exactly what he’s doing at all times. When he’s in danger and is caught off guard, he never looks like he’s about to lose hope. His mind just starts racing to think of a way to respond. Additionally, Harper is someone who has years of experience, and it allows for him to weave in and out of characters to get information like when he’s utilizing an accent to play around with Fay or Troy or acting like he’s a cop with Betty. At the same time, he’s still a troubled hero, as his personal life is in shambles. Nevertheless, it’s hard to tell how he’s really affected by it all because it never gets in the way of his work. With Harper, that is the problem. His job has always taken precedent over his personal life, and his wife Susan has had enough of it. Obviously, he doesn’t want his marriage to end, which is why he finds so many excuses to put off their meeting with the divorce lawyer, but he never puts in the effort to actually make things work with her, which is interesting. This character flaw is an important one, as it showcases that no matter how cool and in control Harper is in every facet of solving a mystery, he is the complete opposite when it comes to his wife. He can attract all of these women with his natural charm and good looks, but he can never take that next step because he never cared to.

Now, he’s at a rock and a hard place as Susan is adamant on splitting, and he’s not invested enough to fix things between them, though he doesn’t want it to end. Instead, he prefers to wait things out to once again focus on solving his next case and seeing it through to the bitter end. Harper is not a perfect person, and it’s in these few key scenes with Susan where we see the other side of our “cool” protagonist, the “real” version of the character behind closed doors. It’s where the viewer sees why he’s not the heroic role model that everyone else sees on the surface. It’s evident in that crucial scene when Harper goes to Susan’s home after almost being killed in the steelyard by Puddler. He’s bloodied, beaten, and visibly distraught. In a rare moment of vulnerability, Harper looks shaken to his core and looks to Susan for comfort. Initially, she’s resistant because of her well-known feelings towards Harper and their failure of a marriage. Actually, she wouldn’t let him in the house until he forces his way in. Then, he pleads with her to help him and swears he’s done with his job. For a moment, the audience is drawn in because of how well Newman is conveying the emotional damage of this case and the scene before it where he narrowly escaped death. Is Harper actually on the verge of quitting this mess, or is he once again playing a character-within-a-character to get what he wants? Susan knows him better than anyone and assumes he just wants a “warm body” he can use, but the viewer is planted firmly on the fence because we know what he just went through. Instead of going through the details to beg for sympathy from his wife, Harper utilizes his low-key approach again, and it’s too endearing to ignore. As Susan’s hardened shell begins to show signs of cracking, she directly asks what he wants from her, and he simply states, “Just a few kind words”, slowing her down. In that moment, she can’t help but believe him because Harper looks and sounds like a broken man looking for support of any kind. Next, the two get closer and she asks what else he wants. Knowing he has her right where he wants her, Harper delivers the line of, “Anything I can get” and for a moment, all is right in the world.

Finally, Susan relents, and Harper looks to be recovered knowing that there is still love between them. They have sex, and it looks like things are back to normal. If he reconnects with his wife and salvages what they have, maybe he can fix things with a clearer head.

Harper has figured out his personal life for the first time by giving Susan the attention she’s always wanted while acknowledging that his job has screwed his life up. It’s all she wanted. The next morning, she’s making breakfast and is visibly chipper in the moment. Unfortunately, all that progress is thrown out the window overnight, as we see Harper walk into the room with his trademark suit on and a downed expression on his face, almost acknowledging that he’s letting down Susan once more. He knows it’s going to hurt her, but his determination as a hero who needs to solve his case still takes precedent over his personal life. It’s the trouble that comes with being someone who’s perceived to be a hero. All of it was Harper just looking for a warm body for comfort. She was right. She does know him better than the viewer does, and we can’t help but feel bamboozled at the thought because we thought he was better than that. The audience’s trust is betrayed with the protagonist in that moment, but it’s needed to showcase one of Lew Harper’s most crucial flaws as a person. He basically used his wife for one night for a temporary release, lied to her about his intentions, and is ready to go right back out there and face the action again, with him literally telling her to forget what he said the night before. He does love Susan, but it’s not enough for him to change his ways. Very rarely can you admit that a protagonist does need a divorce, but this is one of those rare cases. It’s a defining scene for the character to establish this strait-laced hero as one who is an antihero in his personal life. Even when Susan is upfront with him by telling him in an almost worried type of way, “You’re really ending things this time, you know that?” before following it again with, “You know that?”. With her delivery of these lines, she’s STILL giving him one more chance. Despite everything he’s done to her, she does love this man, though she’s taken enough mental abuse at this point. She knows where his priorities are in life.

This is it.

Either Harper stays true to his word, or he walks out and ends everything right then and there, choosing what is more important to him. To Susan, he can’t have both. It’s one or the other, and this final moment is the decision. Normally, a person could do both but based off what we have seen from this marriage, Harper has proven he cannot juggle both effectively. With this in mind, it’s clear this his last chance.

Delving deeper momentarily, she asks him why he has to go back, and it’s a much more important question than we may realize. In a real-life scenario, many would be asking the same question, as Harper’s wife should be more important to him, right? Again, he loves his wife, but there is something inside of him that won’t let him “let go”, which is why he’s a private detective in the first place. Even as a viewer, you want him to reconcile with Susan, but you also can’t ignore the fact that evil is still running freely. It puts the audience in the tough place that the main character is in. Despite the mental anguish Harper has caused the one he married, he is correct. It’s not over yet. There is treachery afoot that needs to be stopped, and Harper is in too deep to quit. He is the only one who can solve this thing without any restrictions. If he gives up, these criminals are going to get away with it, and he can’t let this happen, wife or not. It’s the tough part of being a hero. Someone has to do it, and he’s one of the unlucky one’s. It’s a responsibility he has as a detective, and it can’t just be “let go”, especially when he knows he can do something to stop it. Not a lot of people take into account how this responsibility of doing what’s right (no matter the cost) affects those who are closest to the “hero”, and Harper wanting to save others has caused his own life to fall apart despite his good intentions and light-hearted approach to his job. He does feel bad, but it has to be done. It’s why Lew Harper still maintains his status as a worthy hero, despite us being privy to such a negative action that he willingly took part in. It’s similar to how in the same sentence, Albert describes Harper as scum but also outs him for originally having plans to “push your way up to being the greatest defender of justice that the great and powerful state of California ever had”. However, a somber Harper admits that, “Yeah, well, things just don’t turn out the way we plan, do they?”. This couldn’t be truer in regard to this character and the outcome of this film.

Going back, the conclusion to the Harper/Susan scene was almost funny, with Harper trying to leave the backdoor open with, “Aren’t you gonna wish me luck?”. With the way Susan turns to look at him, you can tell she’s about to explode. Reading the room and knowing he’s done enough to send her up the wall, he just exits before she does flip on him and its great way to end the scene, as well as symbolically end their relationship all at the same time. Strangely enough, Harper’s other major flaw is giving certain people the benefit of the doubt. Most detectives are untrustworthy of just about everyone, but on the rare occasion that Harper is caught lacking, it’s because he chose to believe the wrong person, as evidenced in the sequence with Allan. Even Albert asks him afterwards how he could be caught like that because it’s so out of character for him, but Harper sometimes gets caught up in trying to believe in the good of certain people. He admits he hoped the man wasn’t involved, and it almost cost him. Even so, it’s a nice change of pace to see a private eye try his best to not be as cynical as his counterparts. It aligns with who Harper is. Maybe being cynical would have helped him more in this case, as he could have used the advice he gave to Miranda in hindsight (“Typecast for the hero. You keep getting fooled by appearances”). Unfortunately, Harper can’t help being a more positive private eye and it leads to near dire consequences on more than one occasion. Adding on to this, he’s real. Any time someone sees their demise in front of him, Harper is shattered as if the situation could have been avoided had he approached things differently. Guilt and sympathy are present on his face when emotional and trying times occur, but it locks the viewer in even more because when Harper gets serious, we are serious. He knows when the time is right to take a backseat too. For example, I loved him lying to Betty to put her mind at ease about her lover’s death and telling her how the guy said her name on his way out. Harper didn’t have to say this because he knew she was a part of all this, but he couldn’t help but feel for the girl and threw her bone, knowing it would mean the world to her.

Going back to what makes Harper who he is, his sense of humor is the best part about him. Actually, it’s the biggest highlight of the movie itself. He’s constantly messing with people and spewing sarcastic quips, but they come off as natural and align well with Newman’s easygoing personality. A lot of private detective characters live off biting quips and lines, but Harper’s responses flow like he’s reacting in the moment to these bizarre people he comes across rather than an actor reading off a script. A great example of this is when he has to remind that one doofus deputy to not touch the letter he found in Elaine’s mailbox because of fingerprints and is so sarcastic regarding the deputy’s suggestion of getting his evidence kit from the car that the guy doesn’t get it. When he leaves the room to fetch it for him, Harper just laughs to himself and it’s infectious. He’s having fun, and the audience picks up on it, which makes Harper undeniably endearing despite the complicated mystery at hand. He’s never offended, he’s just operating at a different level and can’t help but laugh at those who aren’t, like when he’s nice enough to help Miranda out of the plane but she refuses, resulting in a notable smile from him. It’s also seen in the small stuff too like when he subtly looks at Miranda’s framed picture twice after telling Albert it’s wrong for him to be in love with the young girl. A lot of the humor can also be seen in Harper’s exaggerated expressions and responses too like him overly nodding at Miranda after she asks if he agrees with her theory of Elaine faking her paralysis. At times, it can be looked at as overacting from Newman but after a second look, I see it as more of Harper loving the performative aspect of being in public and an acting choice made by Newman that he thinks would align with how Lew Harper is with people. Considering this, it does work.

It’s similar to when someone says something stupid to you, and you look away in a different direction because you’re imagining a camera in the room like you’re a supporting character in The Office. Sometimes, we can’t help but do it because our everyday lives are so tied into film, television, and performance art either consciously or subconsciously.

Harper has similar reactions like when he overdoes his eyeroll when Fay snores aloud or his mini-diatribe about world politics when talking about his reasoning for doing his job, Miranda asking him if he’s messing with her, and him responding with, “Jeez, I don’t think so” and doing the over-the-top eyeroll again. It becomes his signature in the movie, and he wins us over with these highly performative reactions to the point where you sort of miss it in The Drowning Pool, as he seemingly drops this act entirely. Then again, it could be because they were trying to mature the character since it’s years down the line. Either way, Harper’s penchant for humor just makes the film. Who doesn’t love his prank call to Susan in the British accent and his infectious laughing and having to cover the mouth of the phone when she says, “My husband is dead” and “His death did nothing but serve the cause of mankind”? How about his argument with the sheriff who tries to get tough with Harper (“Yeah I used to be a sheriff ’til I passed my literacy test”)? He tries to intimidate Harper by threatening, “You know, if I wanted to be ugly, I could-” but Harper cuts him off with “You ARE ugly!”. The sheriff tries to get tougher and ask if he knows who he’s talking to, but Harper’s unflinching retort of “Yeah” in a mocking tone was absolute gold. Harper is filled with great moments like these, and Newman revels in the role as evidenced when the taxicab driver warns him that he might not like The Piano, and he’s like, “Oh well, I’m a swinger” before putting his feet on the seat and laying back. When you got “it”, you got “it”. It’s as simple as that. His reactions in Claude’s temple is worth the price of admission alone. Just observe his face when Claude asks if he’s come to seek salvation, or his immediate laughing after being apprehended by like 30 or so smuggled immigrants on the inside before telling Troy he will legitimately pay him to let him go.

Then, there’s the whole sequence with Fay and its aftermath. You can’t help but laugh when Troy tries to call Harper out on lying about Fay’s attractiveness and he hesitates mid-sentence when insisting, “She’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen!”.

Despite all of this, it’s not like he’s goofy either or the movie leans too far into the humor to muck up the progression of the thriller at hand. Harper is reasonable and can joke around to lighten the mood to either ease the tension of the room for himself or for the audience, before getting back into the brunt of the action. It’s like when Claude tells him not to laugh when he goes on about his mission statement and Harper chuckles and responds slyly with how he only laughs “at what’s funny”. It’s all within reason and never forced. When things are no laughing matter, Harper will react in kind and bring up the intensity to where the audience knows what’s happening is a big deal. There are times where he starts to get pissed off (watch how he pulls that cigarette out of Allan’s mouth), and it brings out a fire in him to see things through when he could very easily excuse himself from the case if he wanted to. He can’t excuse himself though because he does care and has to finish it no matter what happens. That is the mark of a movie hero, and I’m glad this was carried through to its 1975 sequel The Drowning Pool. They tried this with Tony Rome a year later, and Frank Sinatra was solid as a more light-hearted detective as well. However, the tone of the movie wasn’t taken nearly as seriously, and it turned into more of a comedy, which only undermined the work of the screenplay and the case the hero was trying to solve. As a result, the puzzle became too convoluted to really care. In Harper, the layers added to the case only made us want to pay attention more to the action and how Harper was going to navigate through it. The parallels between both mysteries are worth noting too because Sinatra turned down Harper for the action film The Naked Runner. However, after his failure and Harper‘s success, he signed on to star in Tony Rome to follow the trend. Though Tony Rome followed the same blueprint as Harper to try and match its success, it was significantly worse in every category.

In-between scenes where characters are established or clues are found, Harper is still exciting too. There are a lot of heart-pumping sequences that vary in length, but they all strengthen the picture. It could be Harper’s small sprint from the phone after hearing the second click to the money drop where Eddie is killed and the money is stolen, the fight and chase in the steelyard between Harper and Puddler (loved the cinematography during this sequence), the saving of Betty at the house in Castle Beach, and Harper going back to the temple with a gun to demand the whereabouts of Ralph Sampson before he knew the whole story. The intensity and uncertainty regarding how Harper were to fare against his opponents in this scene specifically was almost frightening, though it just reinforces the legend of Lew Harper in the face of criminal beings and unsavory people even further. Even with Troy’s gun to his face and him being outnumbered by double digit numbers, he still has the balls to tell Troy he’s a suspect if he drives a white convertible. It’s such a badass moment. The same can be said when he lightly slaps the sheriff while telling him what’s actually going on, though I digress. One thing I will admit is that the inclusion of Claude and his religious temple could have been a bigger deal. It gave off a very sinister vibe with the way the set is designed and Strother Martin’s oddball performance in the “holy man” cult-like role, but the reveal centered around his involvement is not the freaky avenue I thought the story was going down. It wasn’t necessarily a missed opportunity, as this direction likely wasn’t even thought of during this time period of the 1960s, but modern viewers may have the same opinion as myself.

On a minor note, the oil tanker sequence was directed well. The medium shot of Harper navigating through the quiet, ominous, and barely lit insides of the tanker was really cool.

As great as the main points are, there are still some elements that go unexplained or leave the viewer perplexed. Lauren Bacall’s Elaine was creepy, and the conclusion of her character arc yielded more questions than answers. By the end of it, you’re still unsure about who her and Miranda really are in the grand scheme of things, especially when Miranda is told about the outcome of the news about Allan and her subsequent thoughts on her own father. When Albert consoles her, Harper just stares off in an almost confused state of mind and exits the room. Mentally, the audience is doing the same thing in that moment of time. The final scene between Elaine and Miranda is just one big question mark in a lot of ways (“Mommy has something to tell you”), and you can’t help but furrow your brow in bewilderment at what was accomplished. The same could be said about Betty’s whole backstory with her brother, as her motivations don’t seem nearly strong as it would need to be to do half the things she’s apparently guilty of. The movie as a whole was fifteen minutes too long, and the puzzle arguably had one piece too many, as the final reveal during the ending sequence was a step too far for the story and these characters to the point where our protagonist was even disappointed with the outcome.

“Ah hell”.

Jack Smight’s Harper is a tad too long and could use some tweaks and adjustments in pacing and character arcs. Nevertheless, this doesn’t deter this excellent addition to the private detective subgenre from being the highly entertaining mystery that it is. Paul Newman carries the film on his back and gives us yet another fantastic performance and awesome character worthy of his own personal franchise. It’s a damn shame we only got two of these movies because I could watch Lew Harper attempt to solve a new case every day.

Fun Fact: As previously mentioned, Frank Sinatra turned down the lead to star in The Naked Runner.