by Mark Demetrius
Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Martin Priest, Ben Lang, Maxine Woods
Intro:
It’s unclear just what it’s trying to say — or even be — and may be less than the sum of its parts, but those parts are impressive.
The Plot Against Harry isn’t just an odd movie — it has a rather odd history too. Made in 1969, it didn’t come out for twenty years because it was seen as “not funny”, and now here it is again.
The titular Harry Plotnick (Martin Priest) is a small-time Jewish New York crook, who gets out of gaol after a short stretch for gambling offences and wants to start a new venture. (Not necessarily a legal one.) Along the way, he encounters numerous obstacles, some of them created — deliberately or otherwise — by his family, which includes a second daughter Millie (Margo Ann Beredeshevsky) he didn’t know about before he went inside.
What’s so singular about this film is that while there is a lot of onscreen activity, the prevailing mood is languid, low-key and somehow distant — even slightly surreal. There are meticulously staged, crowded and often entertaining set-pieces, ranging from a Bar Mitzvah and a wedding to a fashion show and a party on a subway train. It would all be very colourful were it not in black and white, but that actually adds to the atmospherics. Harry drifts through all this with an air of bemusement, which may be shared by the viewer.
There ARE amusing scenes here, for example Harry’s response when he’s described as a two-bit racketeer while testifying at a hearing about organised crime. His objection is only to the word two-bit: “I bet I drive a better car than you!”
You might be underwhelmed by The Plot Against Harry, but it will stay with you. It’s unclear just what it’s trying to say — or even be — and may be less than the sum of its parts, but those parts are impressive.
