Honestly, if you can't get your heart behind Harry and Walter, two of the most inept and schlock-sloppy vaudevillians in movie history, I must assume you quite simply do not have a heart. These two sad-sacks are (dis)honestly delightful as they go from their opening song-and-dance routine (one hopes they were able to steal the routine or cobble it together from slices of other performers' routines since if they actually paid for a tune-smith to 'craft' this routine it would have to be, contrary to the film's felonious finale, the greatest rip-off in this film) to a race to out-heist the greatest and grandest of New York's elite safe crackers, quite perfectly played by Michael Caine using his deep store of calm aplomb and a style and grace that does not rub of on Harry or Walter despite their close proximity to the fastidiously-fashioned felon when they are assigned as his immured chamberlains, a position they are even less suited for than vaudeville.
There are some fine twists and turns and changes of heart along the way in what is said to have been the leftover sets from "Hello, Dolly" ... and it shows. Very classy, upscale late 19th century street scenes combined with the less savory back alley action where the starring duo work to save a worthy cause while half the duo is just not putting in the old-college try in turning over a new leaf. However, you will find the ups-and-downs and twists-and-turns lots of fun and despite the fact that this film nearly bankrupt Columbia Pictures (how this was possible I am not certain but considering the director claims that the studio saw the solution to the 'film's problems' as well as the studio's financial woes as leaving the funniest part of the films on the cutting room floor ... what sense this makes is beyond me but when film studios get in trouble, "Heaven's Gate" would be another fine example, it is the film that is attacked with artless, ham-fisted verve in the cutting room as it seems to be the traditional way in which to "save a studio" ... anyone who has seen the uncut version of "Heaven's Gate" will testify that it is not, as it is commonly known, the 'worst film in Hollywood history' but rather perhaps the finest film of the western genre ever made ... certainly the finest of the genre as it was drawing its final breathes in the wilds of Montana rather than the Warner Brothers ranch or Monument Valley National Park where so many were shot.
So whilst I have typically careened off on a jaunt thru an unfamiliar ditch, I highly recommend "Harry and Walter Go to New York" as a film for the entire family.
There are some fine twists and turns and changes of heart along the way in what is said to have been the leftover sets from "Hello, Dolly" ... and it shows. Very classy, upscale late 19th century street scenes combined with the less savory back alley action where the starring duo work to save a worthy cause while half the duo is just not putting in the old-college try in turning over a new leaf. However, you will find the ups-and-downs and twists-and-turns lots of fun and despite the fact that this film nearly bankrupt Columbia Pictures (how this was possible I am not certain but considering the director claims that the studio saw the solution to the 'film's problems' as well as the studio's financial woes as leaving the funniest part of the films on the cutting room floor ... what sense this makes is beyond me but when film studios get in trouble, "Heaven's Gate" would be another fine example, it is the film that is attacked with artless, ham-fisted verve in the cutting room as it seems to be the traditional way in which to "save a studio" ... anyone who has seen the uncut version of "Heaven's Gate" will testify that it is not, as it is commonly known, the 'worst film in Hollywood history' but rather perhaps the finest film of the western genre ever made ... certainly the finest of the genre as it was drawing its final breathes in the wilds of Montana rather than the Warner Brothers ranch or Monument Valley National Park where so many were shot.
So whilst I have typically careened off on a jaunt thru an unfamiliar ditch, I highly recommend "Harry and Walter Go to New York" as a film for the entire family.