Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? ** (1971, Dustin Hoffman, Barbara Harris, Jack Warden) – Classic Movie Review 7481

Director Ulu Grosbard’s 1971 comedy Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? earned an Oscar nomination for Barbara Harris as Best Actress in a Supporting Role. It was her only ever nomination.

Dustin Hoffman stars as pop musician Georgie Soloway, who tells psychiatrist Dr Solomon Moses (Jack Warden) his persecution nightmares, as the film flashes back to Georgie’s youth in New Jersey and survey his showbiz life in the Big Apple.

Some of the detail and most of the performances (especially from the electric young Hoffman, Warden and Harris as Allison Densmore) are very good – and so are the parody songs. But director Grosbard has a real problem trying to bring together such a wild brew of fantasy, send-up, psychology and sentiment. It is co-written and co-produced by Grosbard with Herb Gardner.

Although the film is as unwieldy as its title, it is easy to find something to laugh over or find appealing, not least Barbara Harris.

Also in the cast are David Burns, Gabriel Dell, Dom DeLuise, Betty Walker, Rose Gregorio, Regina Baff, David Galef, Ed Zimmermann, Amy Levitt, Joseph R Sicari, Rudy Bond, Walter Hyman, Walter Hyman Jr, Josip Elic, Herbie Faye, James Hall, Sherry Rooney, Robyn Millan, Shel Silverstein, Irwin Rise, Candy Azzara, Sidney Armus, Susan Bell and Marty Greene.

Barbara Harris, star actress in A Thousand Clowns, Plaza Suite, Nashville, Freaky Friday and Hitchcock’s Family Plot, died at 83 on 21 August 2018. Her last film was Grosse Pointe Blank in 1997.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7481

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Barbara Harris making Hitchcock’s Family Plot.