The Comic Critic's Movie Review of "Harry In Your Pocket"

Harry in Your Pocket is an action comedy with an antihero, something new and very popular in the Seventies. While the gathering of this interesting crew is cordial, tension builds between the characters because despite all their smiles and camaraderie, they are all thieves at heart. The tension has us carefully watching to see if it will disrupt their movements. The action in Harry in Your Pocket comes from the audience  actively following the “poke.’’ There are few staged gags to induce laughter. The comedy comes from us chuckling as they get away with it with the finely tuned choreography of a ballet. If both the action and the humor are subdued, we don’t care. The charisma of James Coburn has us smirking every time he flashes his teeth. Coburn built his career playing the stylish rogue in the Sixties. This film is smooth sailing for him and veteran actor Walter Pidgeon. Pidgeon’s role as mentor is great fun to watch. His character reflects an illusion of an older, more elegant era in crime. The timing of his career with this movie is perfect and he very nearly steals the show from Coburn. Harry in Your Pocket is not holding up very well with age. The chaotic fashions and lifestyle of the Seventies are pervasive on the screen and look a bit dated. It’s rather fun for me as I grew up near Seattle, and most of the movie is set in that locale. I recognized buildings and restaurants that have long since have been torn down and replaced with high-rises. Harry in Your Pocket is a movie of the Seventies, when the studios were experimenting with what makes movie relevant. It both hits and misses the mark. But if you’re looking for a movie with some hustle and a dash of time capsule, you will find it a good time.

The Comic Critic Reviews "Woman in the Window"

The Woman in the Window is a classic Noir film. You have the hero, who is also the anti-hero because his actions press against the rules of society. You have the femme fatale, whose appearance apparently dooms the hero. You have no-nonsense dialogue that’s sometimes slangy but always has an edge of flirtation. And lastly, you have cinematography that is consistently clever in its use of stark, contrasting lighting and shadows. The Woman in the Window meets all of those qualifications. It also delves into a premise, set forth at the beginning of the film, on the moral selection that defines a killing as murder. From that point on, it’s easy for the story to bring down a wrath-from-god judgment on the offender of the commandment: Thou shall not kill. The femme fatale can be seen as the alluring Eve offering the forbidden fruit that would lead to the breaking of yet more commandments. Our would-be-innocent hero is stepping along the edge of propriety and suddenly finds himself entangled in more than an academic exercise. Now, all that he is is at stake. The actors and actresses in this film provide all that is desired. The in-the-know audience sees beneath the poker face of Edward G. Robinson’s character, and gets to enjoy the superb micro-gestures of his eyes and breath showing the stress his character is under. The Woman in the Window was directed by Fritz Lang, and he masterfully provides a double ending to the film.  Lang admits the old trick. He argued that it was a compromise to the studio to comply with the Hayes Code, and still have a way for him to show one of the endings he wanted. He was proud that its construction was not just palatable, but entertaining, too. Certainly a laugh is generated when another potential femme fatale is introduced. Such an occurrence is highly unusual in Noir.

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