The Plot Against Harry
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: B
Harry Plotnik (Martin Priest) has just come out of prison
and the world he used to rule as a Jewish numbers operator with more
connections than a telephone switchboard.
That was not enough to keep him out of the slammer, then he finds that
all kinds of new and unexpected developments have occurred. The Plot Against Harry was made in
1969 and disappeared for 20 years. In
1989, the film resurfaced as an indie film hit and that only continued its cult
classic status.
Michael Roemer, who already had the impressive Nothing
But A Man (1964) under his belt, came up with an amazing piece of New York
School filmmaking at the time the rise of John Cassavetes, Woody Allen and
Martin Scorsese were on the rise. It is
one of those rare films that really lives up to the term and idea of “slice of
life” in its remarkably naturalistic portrayal of the wackier side of New York
and those who are up to no good. What
today in usually lesser hands would have been a bunch of pretentious vignettes
that do not add up, Roemer produced and totally wrote the screenplay of Harry’s
trip back into the world he loves. Too
bad he is getting bad news form all sides.
This includes a funny court appearance that gets broadcast
on television. Fortunately, the film
does not try to imitate TV or have the footage shot on video, which is a very
tired cliché today. Though the look of
the film reveals it is a product of the late 1960s, in many ways it is more
alive, fresher, and more vibrant in its vivid black and white than all the
desaturated film-as-video and outright video garbage that has glutted the
market today. The result is a great
comedy that is dramatic and played seriously, yet keeps smacking of the truth
at every turn. The Plot Against
Harry is a minor classic of New York Filmmaking.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image, which is not
even credited on the DVD case to this releases detriment, is one of the
best-looking older black and white titles we have seen to date. Robert Young’s cinematography is terrific,
offering fine composition throughout and many moments of deep focus
photography. This is one of New Video’s
best picture quality DVDs to date. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is not bad, from the recovered reissue sound in
1969. This does not have any surrounds
and does not need it. In combination,
it is almost as good as Paramount’s similar DVD of John Frankenheimer’s Seconds
(1966) in the performance department.
Extras include filmmaker biographies and a terrific reflection piece
(33:26) in which Roemer and Young discuss their films and the comeback of their
work. The Plot Against Harry,
like the men who made it, was ahead of its time by at least two decades. This is must-see filmmaking.
- Nicholas Sheffo
