Harry and Walter Go to New York ** (1976, James Caan, Elliott Gould, Michael Caine, Diane Keaton) – Classic Movie Review 11,891

Michael Caine and Jane Seymour in Jack the Ripper.

Director Mark Rydell’s 1976 American period comedy film Harry and Walter Go to New York stars James Caan, Elliott Gould, Michael Caine and Diane Keaton.

A hundred years or so ago in New York (it’s 1892), struggling song ‘n’ dance men Harry Dighby and Walter Hill (James Caan and Elliott Gould) turn to safecracking. Michael Caine plays Adam Worth, the international criminal who joins them in a bank heist.

Harry and Walter Go to New York is a sloppy, slapdash farcical comedy, with good stars having to work desperately hard (and it shows) to try to raise the spirits because the script by John Byrum and Robert Kaufman is not funny or clever enough.

Compensations can be found in the good-looking, expensive production, some amusing scenes, a strong cast of support performers, and the movie’s pleasant, undemanding nature.

Caan and Gould aren’t exactly Bob Hope and Bing Crosby as natural vaudevillians, but they are OK, though Keaton is unhappy as a newspaper editor who helps them.

Also in the cast are Charles Durning, Lesley Ann Warren, Val Avery, Jack Gilford, Carol Kane, Dennis Dugan, Kathryn Grody, David Proval, Michael Conrad, Burt Young, Bert Remsen, Ted Cassidy, Michael Greene, James De Closs, Nicky Blair, George Greif, John Hackett, Philip Kenneally, Brion James, and George Gaynes.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,891

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