User Reviews

An earlier poster commented that it came and went in the theaters. That's because (at least in America), it was savaged by the critics. But when I saw this on cable a little while after, I actually found it to be very funny, and even taped it for my personal collection. The sequence at the end when Harry and Walter are doing what they can to extend the play so they can steal the money is very funny. When James Caan stops the play and starts singing his lines that, "he's not the real Prince Herbert, I am!" I thought was really great. I remember the "owls who" line as well, but Caan's singing his lines was what I most enjoyed in that movie. I also liked the scene where Caan and Gould go into the fancy restaurant, order fancy wine, and have no idea what to do when the sommelier tries to serve it to them.

Labored with a director like Mark Rydell who has an uncanny knack for making a million dollar movie look like it was shot on a shoe- string, this is not a trip I would recommend. Mr. Rydell is really in his element here. He just loves to ignore his million dollar sets and concentrate instead on Elliott Gould's unprepossessing mug as if he were directing some small-scale TV show and not a film designed by Harry Horner and photographed by Laslo Kovacs. No less than three editors were employed to try to disguise Rydell's inadequacies. It seems Mr. Rydell took no notice of anybody. He didn't even bother to read the credits. For instance, there's a credit he ignored that told us that the stained glass windows in the restaurant set were based on designs by Alphonse Muca. What stained glass windows? Did you see any stained glass windows? I didn't! They were probably hidden behind Charles Durning's right ear. The screenplay – or at least as much of it as manages to percolate through Rydell's heavy hand – is occasionally not without interest, though why Rydell spends so much time on a scene in which Harry tries to persuade Walter to go to New York, beggars the imagination. For your information, Mr. Durning, that's what a movie entitled Harry and Walter Go to New York is all about. Elliott Gould plays Walter and is his usual camera-hogging style. On the other hand, Carol Kane and Jack Gilford are wasted in minuscule parts. But if you can wait that long, there is a nice climax where the songs finally come to the fore in an amusing Ruritanian pastiche.

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.

The 1970s was a great time for costume crime movies. Some were serious, some were comic, some wobbled from one extreme to the other. But for every classy "The Sting," "The Great Train Robbery," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" or "Murder on the Orient Express" there was a "Harry and Walter Go to New York."

Plot: two "entertainers" playing the lowest possible vaudeville houses (Elliott Gould and James Caan, who have no chemistry together but were inexplicably huge stars at the time) . . . Well, their names are Harry and Walter and they go to New York. Why? To rob a bank. So, there.

Gould and Caan are terrible. Gould could play comedy, I've seen it. And this movie was made before he became catatonic. He has no excuse for his performance. Caan was funnier being filled with lead at a toll booth. It's highly ranked but "The Godfather" has a lot to answer for.

Now, this flick has a few good things going for it. Look for the silver lining.

It's beautifully shot. It has wonderful production values (you know a movie's in trouble when that's one of the first things someone points out; it's like saying "For a fat guy you don't sweat much.") The grapevine has it, some of the sets were handed down from the overblown and horribly miscast (except for Michael Crawford) "Hello, Dolly." But you can't tell it by me. "Hello Dolly" was bad, but it's head and shoulders above "Harry and Walter," which lacks the saving grace of Louis Armstrong belting out a song. To be fair, Armstrong was deceased at the time but if they'd brought him back and propped him up he'd still have been more appealing than Harry or Walter.

Lots of the music is good. What a waste. I've seen far better movies go begging for good music. Life's not fair.

"Harry and Walter" has a dearth of humorous lines; but I smiled at one where Gould is whining there are snakes in the woods, because the morning I saw this thing I found a snake shed at my front porch. And there it stays until it melts.

Then there's *Michael Caine,* who alone raises this movie from the scrap heap, with a superb performance. Every time he appears he lights up the screen. Maybe it's because everything around him is so drear. One of the two stars I gave this fiasco belongs to Caine alone. Bravo, Mr. Caine. But no encores.

The film is chock full of notable character players. My favorite is Dennis Dugan, who played in the short-lived TV series "Ritchie Brockleman." Yes, such a series was broadcast but I see no reason to look it up for proper spelling. And the great "No one can eat just one" Jack Gilford shows up. Too bad.

While the movie has the feel of one of Blake Edwards' lousier pictures, with everyone overacting (apart from Caine) and screaming over each others' lines and occasionally pontificating (will someone shut that harridan Diane Keaton up???), it's really lots worse than that. It's somewhere deep beneath "The Front Page," a dog starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Austin Pendleton and Carol Burnett (allegedly when "The Font Page" was shown on a flight she was on, Burnett apologized to the people on the plane; let's see Diane try that one!)

But, hey, even Michael Caine has turned in a lousy performance or two (anyone see "Blame it on Rio"? That one had only 2 good things about it and they belonged to Michelle Johnson, not Caine who, as he might say, was "bloody awful" in "Rio"). Here he's just wonderful but that doesn't mean he should get high hat about it.

According to the trivia on this site, "Harry and Walter" was HEAVILY re-edited after disastrous previews. We can tell some scenes are clipped to the quick. I can only say that if there was more of this mess, I'm glad I was spared it.

The DVD I saw didn't have so much as a main page. You slide it in the cup holder and the movie plays without preamble. That tells you what the company that put it out thought of it.

Personal note: when I was an innocent child I went to see a matinee movie and sat through a trailer for "Harry and Walter Go to New York." I thought it was one of the worst things I ever witnessed. I was right. The only reason I watched it 46 years later was because I was reading about the real Adam Worth and wanted to see Caine's take on the character. Thank heavens for fast forward.

A pair of inept vaudevillians team up with a liberal newswoman to rob a bank. Her reasons were for the furtherance of mankind. At the same time a notorious thief and his gang are plotting the same job. The reason he uses is simple revenge. This was pretty banal stuff, but was fairly entertaining and had a ridiculously funny ending.

It's probably impossible to fully comprehend how bad this over-titled movie is. HAWGTNY has more than a passing resemblance to THE STING...in a way, it could be considered that classic's disfigured sibling. Mark Rydell, a director hardly known for his light touch, brings none to this supposed farce. James Caan and Elliott Gould play bumbling vaudevillians caught up in a plan to rob a bank already earmarked by classy criminal Michael Caine. Caan, Gould and Caine have been fine in a lot of movies, but they pale in the shadow of Newman, Redford and Robert Shaw. The large supporting cast includes Charles Durning and a particularly annoying Diane Keaton.

Twelve year-old children with no imagination may find some of this fun, others should beware!

Hairy wallets were the box office results of this starry but flat caper comedy that is delightful to look at but thanks to a tepid script the audience cold. You'd think with a cast including Elliott Gould, James Caan, Michael Caine and Diane Keaton that this film would have been a smash Hit. But obviously word-of-mouth got around and the audience, having felt stung several times with big cast/big budget comedies they could afford to miss this one. It's another period game supposedly written to be funny that is nice to look at with its gaudy sets but ultimately a visit to dullsville.

On-screen, the cast looks like it's having a blast, perhaps unaware of the big turkey that they are in. It wasn't until afterwards when the final results were seen that they all realized that it's just an empty-headed retread caper comedies that they've seen dozens of times and not nearly as good. It's hard to believe that any third-rate burlesque or vaudeville house would hire the wretched singing and dancing entertainers that Gould and Caan play here, so when the two men end up in jail for theft, it's the movie audience that's applauding, not only the minimal audience in the theater within the film.

In his initial conversation with the two, sophisticated criminal mastermind Caine should have been instantly aware of the dim light bulbs he was talking to. In fact, there doesn't seem to be an intelligent character in the film until suffragette reporter Diane Keaton shows up, and fortunately, this is a performance without her usual tics. The character actors who have smaller roles also fared better, with Charles Durning, Jack Gilford, Bert Remsen and Burt Young all delivering their usual dependable performances. This is the type of bad comedy that critics loved tearing apart with bad puns, and as a result, hardly anybody went to see it which is why it is basically forgotten today.

The truth about film comedy is that the best funny flicks are never recognized in their own time. For example, the Marx Bros. comedy "Duck Soup" (1933) was universally panned as a stinker, but today critics regard it as a classic. "Harry and Walter Go to New York" shares the same pedigreed. The critics savaged it in its day and audiences never warmed up to its outlandishly labored comic shenanigans. However, now that it is available in a widescreen version on DVD, today's audiences can relish what yesteryear's spectators reviled.

Director Mark Rydell, who made "The Reivers," "The Rose," "The River," "For the Boys," "On Golden Pond," and "The Cowboys," may regret having ever helmed "Harry and Walter Go to New York," but he shouldn't because the Columbia Pictures release qualifies as an entertaining, big dumb, stooge comedy that casts a likable James Caan and Elliot Gould as a couple of Keystone Criminals. The authorities arrest two woebegone vaudeville comics, Harry Dighby (James Caan of "The Killer Elite") and Walter Hill (Elliot Gould of "The Long Goodbye"), during a carnival act when Harry pinches money from the wallets of spectators participating in a routine where Harry quizzes a veiled Walter what he holds in his hand. These two cretinous clowns are shipped off to Concord Prison where they meet wealthy, urbane,debonair criminal genius Adam Worth (Michael Caine of "The Eagle Has Landed") and become his personal servants. Worth got sent up the river by a duplicitous banker, Rufus T. Crisp (Charles Durning of "Sharkey's Machine") who had been his cohort in a robbery. Cooling his elegant heels in a Massachusetts Prison, Worth obtains the plans to a new Mosler safe from one of his confederates and schemes at striking back at Crisp's bank again in revenge for Crisp selling Worth out and landing him in prison. Meantime, a crusading but small-time New York City newspaper editor, Lissa Chestnut (Diane Keaton of "Annie Hall") visits the prison to interview Worth and expose his regally appointed jailhouse living quarters to the outside world. At the same time, Worth has concealed the plans to the new safe behind a framed picture. Somehow, Harry discovers the blueprints, and Walter and he try to take a photograph of the plans. During the shooting process, Harry puts too much powder in the flash-burn tray to illuminate the plans. As a result, a fire breaks out and the plans are destroyed, much to Worth's horror. Furious at this sudden reversal of events, Worth demands that Warden Durgom (Burt Young of "Rocky") assign hapless Harry to the nitroglycerine detail where prisoners handle the unstable, volatile explosives to clear a rock quarry. Guard O'Meara (Bert Remsen of "Thieves Like Us"), who laughs at Harry's misfortune, demonstrates to our knuckle-headed hero how to handle the stuff. Of course, Harry shrewdly exploits his newfound talent to escape from prison with his partner-in-crime Walter and flee to New York City, obtain the photo of the plans and rob the bank before Worth's men can loot it. Our goofball heroes show up in New York and hoodwink Lissa, telling her about how they are out on parole before they learn that Walter's photograph of the plans survived intact. Worth shows up not long afterward and forces Harry to hand over the plans to the safe. The scene where Worth locks poor Walter in an airtight safe until Harry coughs up the plans establishes the antagonist's dastardly villainy. Angry at both Worth as well as Harry and Walter, Lissa dedicates herself along with Harry and Walter to beating Worth to the punch and cracking the toughest bank in America. Lissa, Harry and Walter are going into the bank from the top, while Worth and his henchmen are tunneling in from the bottom in a race to see who can get to the goods first. Never wasting a moment in advancing the action, Rydell generates some genuine suspense and hilarity when our heroes radically alter their plans and decide to blow the safe during a stage performance of Worth's mistress Gloria Fontaine (Lesley Ann Warren) before the gentleman thief can descend on the bank himself. Harry and Walter's antics to make enough time for themselves and their cohorts to stall the end of the play so that their accomplices can get into the vault are very amusing. "Harry and Walter Go to New York" doesn't miss a beat during its 111-minute running time.

Although it flopped miserably during its short-lived theatrical release, "Harry and Walter Go to New York" qualifies as superficial, low-brow, but side-splitting merriment that recaptures the nostalgic era of the Gay 90s, back when 'gay' and homosexuality weren't synonymous. People remember this era for its ubiquitous handle-bar mustaches, long sideburns, derby hats, arm garters, and cravats. Sumptuously produced with exacting attention to detail, boasting a stellar cast which included Carol Kane, Jack Gilford, Lesley Ann Warren, Ted Cassidy, Brion James, and Burt Young, this heavy-handed but hilarious comedy of errors has been gorgeously lensed by ace cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, whose credits include "Blood of Dracula's Castle," "What's Up, Doc," and "New York, New York." Clearly, Columbia Pictures spared no expense on these period hi-jinks, while Rydell must have allowed Caan and Gould a free hand at improvising their antics. The song and dance number "Nobody's Perfect" that they perform at the beginning epitomizes their hopeless numb-skullduggery. Gould and Caan conjure up more than enough chemistry to pull this caper off. Caan spouts crazy ideas and Gould constantly reprimands his partner's temerity. They look like they belong in the 1890s, too. Michael Caine is a revelation as the straight-man/villain who runs afoul of our heroic buffoons. "Harry and Walter Go to New York" constantly refers to the haves and have-nots of society and aligns our sympathy with the low-class underdogs against the imperious upper-class.