Mailman: “Beautiful day.”
—Harvey, 1950
Elwood P. Dowd: “Oh, every day’s a beautiful day.”
In the movie “Harvey”, James Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, who believes that he has a six-foot-tall rabbit friend named Harvey, though no one else can see him. Everyone including his sister thinks Elwood’s insane, and his calm commitment to his belief enrages them. To Elwood, this is not a belief. It’s a reality that he can observe with his own eyes, and Harvey is a comforting presence to him.
The people around Elwood want him to say that Harvey is not real. They think he should be committed to a mental institution. Elwood though, seems happier than anyone in the film and is politely confused by their anger and fear. He is even very much aware of what Harvey is, referring to the invisible rabbit as a “púca”. A púca is primarily a creature of Celtic folklore, bringers of both good and bad luck. They are shape-changers who can appear as dogs, cats, horses, and yes, hares.
It’s not surprising that Harvey is a creature of Celtic folklore. Harvey the film is based on a Pulitzer-prize winning play written by Mary Chase. Mary grew up Irish Catholic and poor in a lower income neighbourhood in Denver, Colorado. She had a passion for progressive politics and worked as a reporter, starting at the Rocky Mountain News, then moving into freelance writing.
Though Harvey the play proved to be a massive success for her, the press portrayed Mary as a housewife instead of a legitimate writer, and nasty rumours swirled that she didn’t even write the play herself. Partially due to these difficulties, Mary struggled with alcoholism and eventually joined Alcoholics Anonymous. In 1955, she founded House of Hope, a Denver non-profit that provides help to female alcoholics. By the time she passed away in 1981 she had written fourteen plays, two children’s novels, one screenplay, and had worked seven years at the Rocky Mountain News as a journalist. She also raised three children alongside her husband Robert.
Harvey was written as a comedy; Mary Chase was partially inspired to write it by wanting to write something that could make her neighbour laugh, a heartbroken woman who had lost her son in World War II. Although the film has a lot of content intended to be comedic, I never thought of Harvey as simply a comedy. It’s the story of someone who is ridiculed, harassed, and nearly institutionalized for being different and for having a source of comfort -written in a time of war.
The loveable character Elwood P. Dowd is a person who doesn’t worry about other people’s business, and he is happy. The characters surrounding him are constantly worrying about him and trying to control him, and they seem to become less and less happy. They doubt Elwood, like people would come to doubt Mary Chase and her talent when the play found success.
It’s easy to judge harshly. It’s easy to make assumptions and have strong opinions and to always have a comeback or retort. But it’s exhausting and it doesn’t always feel good.
In the words of Elwood P. Dowd, “Years ago my mother used to say to me… “In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.” Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.”
—Jimmy Stewart, Harvey