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“P O O K A – Pooka – from old Celtic mythology – a fairy spirit in animal form – always very large. The pooka appears here and there – now and then – to this one and that one – a benign but mischievous creature – very fond of rumpots, crackpots, and Wonkers.”
I might have made a small change to that quote.
Harvey is a 6-foot-3-and-a-half-inch tall white rabbit pooka and best friend to Elwood P. Dowd. People see Harvey through their own lenses and he may or may not be imaginary. But to Elwood the big bunny is a drinking buddy and a companion who ensures that he is never alone. That Harvey is also a giant bunny seems to be of no concern to him. To others it means Elwood is dangerously disturbed. They ignore that he is quite happy, kind-hearted and friendly.
The people who are concerned about the invisible large white hare believe Elwood to be delusional. Those people include his older sister, Veta Louise. She loves her baby brother but wishes to commit him to a sanitarium, his conversations with Harvey embarrass her among high society.
The sanitarium, Chumley’s Rest, is a stately mansion with pretty flowers lining the drive to the front door. Arriving in a cab, Veta Louise brings her brother Elwood to the psychiatric residence for a long stay. The welcoming façade of the manor disappears behind closing iron gates and locked doors. The alarms on the windows are a reminder that this isn’t a place for a pleasant visit.
The young psychiatrist Lyman Sanderson is the doctor in charge when Veta Louise enters the sanitarium to commit her brother. The ambitious Dr. Sanderson wants to prove himself to his mentor Dr. Chumley. He insists on handling the incoming patient himself and escorts an upset Veta Louise into his office. Misdiagnosing an overwrought Veta as the delusional patient, he has her dragged away by an orderly for hydrotherapy. Meanwhile Elwood has been allowed to saunter off with his friend Harvey and they head to the bar.
Eventually the mistake is uncovered and Veta Louise is freed from the sanitarium. Returning home she explains to her daughter that the doctor and orderly had ignored her pleas to be released and had allowed her brother Elwood to wander off. Stating that “They’re not interested in men in places like that,” Veta exposes a darkness in this light-hearted film, both how women are not heard and the poor treatment of those with mental health issues.
When Elwood finally lands at the sanitarium his sister convinces him to take Dr. Sanderson’s Formula 977: medicine that will make the invisible Harvey disappear. An injected drug that will also remove what makes Elwood such a quixotic and uplifting human. Veta is torn between believing medicine can cure what ails Elwood and realizing that he doesn’t need to be cured. There’s a trade off sometimes that must be made with psychiatric medications, what really is best for someone can be a difficult decision. Is it really better to take something positive and light from a person just so they can better fit into society. Maybe we need more people to be like Elwood and Harvey to brighten our dreary world.
Harvey stars James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow, Jesse White, Charles Drake and Victoria Horne. Directed by Henry Koster.
Harvey is available on the Internet Archives. $3.99 in the usual places.
To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules, go to WonkMovie.
Tonight we have Summertime (1935) in which Old Man Winter does not want to be replaced by summer so he has a snowball fight with white rabbits riding centaurs. It is another cartoon from UB Iwerks in his trippy as fuck animation style. Yes, ‘trippy as fuck’ is a real category or at least it should be!
