The Plot Against Harry (1989)

Director:

Michael Roemer

Writer:

Michael Roemer (writer)

Release Date:

5 October 1990 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A small-time Jewish racketeer, just out of prison, finds himself in a quandary. Returning to his old neighborhood...

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film | Character Name In Title

Awards:

1 win & 7 nominations

Cast

Martin Priest	...	Harry Plotnick
Ben Lang	...	Leo
Maxine Woods	...	Kay
Henry Nemo	...	Max
Jacques Taylor	...	Jack
Jean Leslie	...	Irene
Ellen Herbert	...	Mae
Sandra Kazan	...	Margie
Ronald Coralian	...	Mel Skolnik
Max Ulman	...	Sidney
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Louis Basile	...	Doctor
Margo Ann Berdeshevsky	...	Millie (as Margo Solin)
Ethel Burke	...	Ida
Stephen Cheng	...	Jimmy Hong
Sarah Christie	...	Tillie
Christopher Cross	...	Telethon MC
Hollis Culver	...	Call Girl
Shirley Ann Davis	...	Call Girl
Angelo DeLuca	...	Natale
Ron Fredrics	...	T.V. floor manager
Hal Friedlander	...	Dog Trainer
Sylvia Glickman	...	Miss Pike
Ernesto Gonzalez	...	Carlos
Paul E. Guskin	...	Stevie
W. Harris	...	Julie
Seymour M. Heilbron	...	Commissioner
Jack Hirsch	...	Dr. Feinstein
Ronald F. Hoiseck	...	T.V. floor director--Ron Fredericks
B. Michael Kamber	...	Lawyer
Mike Longo	...	Singer
Leonard Margolin	...	Commander
José Ocasio	...	Jesus
Nicholas Ponzini	...	Tony
Zviah Ralbag	...	Hattie
Ruth Roemer	...	Linda Skolnik
Henry Rothblatt	...	Lawyer
Stanley Schneider	...	Doctor (as Stan Schneider)
Ed Setrakian	...	Vitale
Neil Shapiro	...	Sammy Warner
Jeanette Wilkins	...	Cheryl
Paul Zayas	...	Fernando

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:7

Company:

King Screen Productions

Trivia:

The film was shot in black and white in the late 1960s and was not given a proper release. Almost exactly twenty years later, in 1989, it was discovered and given a proper release for the first time.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Killing Floor (2007)

A Winner about A Loser

Here's something new: a little B/W film with no stars, about a middle-aged Jewish ex-gangster who wants to go into the catering business --AND it's not "Hollywood sit-com cute"! It's understandable that with all of that going 'against' it, no one wanted to release this film back in 1970. Luckily, director Martin Roemer never underestimated the richness of his film. Twenty years after being turned down by Hollywood, he decided to try the independent festival circuit and there, he found his audience.

The plot against Harry Plotnick is basically his own conscience and paranoia working against him. He'd left a good marriage unaware that his wife was pregnant at the time, not that it probably would have made a big difference to him back then. He was obsessed with the numbers racket, where he made a fair amount of money but ultimately spent a fair amount of time in prison, only to discover upon his release that the rackets had been taken over by various minorities. Now Harry is beginning to see the signs that it's time to make good with his conscience, with his family and with God. Not an easy feat!

This film is a wonderful glimpse into the kind of independent cinema that was around during the early seventies. It's 'early John Cassavetes meets early Woody Allen'. Unlike THE FRENCH CONNECTION or MEAN STREETS, both good films that depicted very specific worlds within Manhattan at that time, this film opens up a whole variety of worlds. Thus it steers free of cliches, no matter how deep it goes into the ethnic backgrounds of its characters. People are just people. Not all good or all bad. This film is like a breath of fresh air compared to the ultra-hip indie films of today. It's effortless, humorous, poignant, and an extremely enjoyable time capsule of the recent past.