I adore John Candy. His life was cut short far too early and all the stories and characters he had in him were lost with him. I loved his short scene in JFK where he was playing a dark character; I loved him in Planes, Trains & Automobiles where his Dell was a mix of zaniness, pathos and sadness. He was a thrillingly tragi-comic character and, I think, the performance deserved an Academy Award. I loved him in this film as well.
Who’s Harry Crumb? is a comedy directed by Eugene Levy and it is a hard film to describe. The plot is, basically, a series of inter-connected sketches designed to headline John Candy in a variety of wigs and costumes, playing different characters. The connector is that he is Harry Crumb, a private detective that wears disguises and affects characters to do his detecting. The plot, such as it is, consists of the daughter of a rich man is kidnapped and the detective agency head charged with finding her is the man that kidnapped her. He enlists Harry Crumb, the embarrassing son of the founder of the detective agency, to do the job, believing that he is so incompetent that he could never do it. Add to the story the rich man’s trophy wife and her boyfriend, also trying to steal his money, and the underappreciated, younger daughter who partners with Harry, and you have a farce that has a lot of ingredients that don’t quite work.
I like the film but it does not work as well as it could. Even in my most recent, tired viewing, I could understand that the scenes were strung together as part of the plot. Candy in an Indo-American brownface and affecting an Indian accent really bothered me. This is an 80s sight gag fest that I wish was better. It had a talented cast, John Candy, Annie Potts, Shawnee Smith, Barry Corbin, Jeffrey Jones (though now it is hard to view him without a distasteful feeling).
It should have worked but I don’t think they really understood how to make it work, I guess. It has its moments. Candy and Levy would also make Armed & Dangerous, and Once Upon a Crime, probably a couple more, I can’t recall at this time, as well as their SCTV collaboration.
It does serve to remind that I miss John Candy.
Fun if you don’t think too hard about it.
-all photos via IMDB.com
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