''Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?'' is a 1971 American

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by

Ulu Grosbard Israel "Ulu" Grosbard (9 January 1929 – 19 March 2012) was a Belgian-born, naturalized American theatre and film director and film producer. Life and career Born in Antwerp, Grosbard was the son of Rose (Tenenbaum) and Morris Grosbard, who wo ...

and starring

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is ...

.Canby, Vincent (June 16, 1971)
"Film: 'Who Is Harry Kellerman ... ?' at the Sutton".
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. 40. It portrays a single day in the life of Georgie Soloway, played by Hoffman. Its narrative is

stream of consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver in 1840 in ''First L ...

filled with both comedy and drama.

Plot

Georgie Soloway (

) is a

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

composer who experiences personal conflicts when trying to track down a man named Harry Kellerman, who had been spreading outrageous lies about him. Soloway is a rich and successful man, who lives in a fancy penthouse apartment and seemingly has everything, but he is beginning to think he is losing his mind; he cannot sleep, women he has dated are rejecting him after getting calls from the mysterious "Harry", and he fantasizes about committing suicide by leaping off his balcony. Regular visits to his psychiatrist are not helping. At night, he struggles with

insomnia Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...

and can only sleep when his long-suffering accountant comes over and reads his earnings statements to him. When he does sleep, he dreams again about jumping to his death. As Georgie tries to make sense of his life, he thinks back on his experiences. Although Georgie is a

love song A love song is a song about romantic love, falling in love, heartbreak after a breakup, and the feelings that these experiences bring. A comprehensive list of even the best known performers and composers of love songs would be a large order ...

writer, he has never had a successful, lasting relationship. His first love, Ruthie, broke up with him after he got her pregnant and she had to have an abortion. He later met a kind waitress named Gloria whom he also got pregnant; he married Gloria and they had two children, but then he cheated on her and she asked for a divorce. More recently, he met an aging actress named Allison ( Barbara Harris), who had just miserably failed an audition for a rock musical. Allison turned out to have a lot in common with him, including a failed marriage and thoughts of suicide. When he learns it is her birthday, he takes her for a ride in his private plane and they spend one romantic evening together. Georgie visits his aging father, who runs a small restaurant and has always had a dream of opening a bigger place. Georgie asks him why he does not move elsewhere and open the large restaurant of his dreams with the checks Georgie has sent him, instead of always sending back the checks. His father explains that he is starting to suffer the effects of

arteriosclerosis Arteriosclerosis is the thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of arteries. This process gradually restricts the blood flow to one's organs and tissues and can lead to severe health risks brought on by atherosclerosis, which ...

and that it is too late for him to open a new restaurant now, because he will soon die. Georgie goes for a ride over New York City in his private plane and looks for the cemetery where his father said he wanted to be buried. Then, he tries to call first Ruthie and then Allison on the sky phone in the plane. Neither of the women recognizes his voice, so he hangs up, but not before revealing that he himself is "Harry Kellerman". At the end, Georgie is shown crashing his private plane into the buildings of Manhattan, then cheerfully skiing away with his psychiatrist.

Cast

as Georgie Soloway * Barbara Harris as Allison Densmore *

Jack Warden Jack Warden (born John Warden Lebzelter Jr.; September 18, 1920July 19, 2006) was an American character actor of film and television. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for ''Shampoo'' (1975) and '' Heaven Can Wait' ...

as Dr. Solomon F. Moses * David Burns as Leon Soloway *

Dom DeLuise Dominick DeLuise (August 1, 1933 – May 4, 2009) was an American actor, comedian, director, producer, chef, and author. Known primarily for his comedic performances, he rose to fame in the 1970s as a frequent guest on television variety sho ...

as Irwin Marcy *

Gabriel Dell Gabriel Dell (born Gabriel Marcel Dell Vecchio; October 8, 1919 – July 3, 1988) was an American actor and one of the members of what came to be known as the Dead End Kids, then later the East Side Kids and finally The Bowery Boys. Acting car ...

as Sidney Gill * Betty Walker as Margot Soloway *

Rose Gregorio Rose Gregorio (born October 17, 1934) is an American actress. She began her career appearing mostly in theatre in Chicago and New York City during the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1970s she became more active in television and film, appearing most ...

as Gloria Soloway *

Regina Baff Regina "Regie" Baff is an American actress. She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1974 for '' Veronica's Room''. Career Regina Baff appeared in '' The West Side Waltz'' with Katharine Hepburn. She also appeared on film, starring in ''Below the ...

as Ruthie Tresh *

David Galef David Adam Galef (born March 27, 1959) is an American fiction writer, critic, poet, translator, and essayist. Born in the Bronx, he grew up in Scarsdale. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1981, after which he lived in Os ...

as Leonard Soloway

Release and reception

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and wrote that the film's "failure to come to grips with the personal meaning of suicide is the fundamental reason 'Harry Kellerman' doesn't entirely succeed. There's a certain flabbiness in its philosophy. And yet (having gotten the thoughts about suicide off my chest), I reacted very favorably to some scenes in the film, and I think Hoffman's two long scenes with Barbara Harris are among the best cinema I've seen in some time. Miss Harris has earned an Academy Award nomination hands down."

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

'' said, "It is very glib, very funny in short takes and rather tedious and predictable in long ones, and it virtually kills itself trying to convince us that life at the top is even more anxious, more empty, than is life at the bottom, or at the middle." Arthur D. Murphy of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called the film "an artistic disappointment" with a "dull screenplay," noting that "entire reels could be interchanged without being evident." Gene Siskel of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4 and wrote, "There isn't much right about 'Harry Kellerman' ... Much of the dialog is too cute ('What should I do for reality; it never did anything for me.' 'If Shakespeare wrote music, they'd all be in the top 10.' 'Doctor, I came to you in flames, and you treated me for sunburn.') And when Dustin Hoffman can't deliver these lines smoothly, you know they are stilted."

Charles Champlin Charles Davenport Champlin (March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an American film critic and writer. Life and career Champlin was born in Hammondsport, New York. He attended high school in Camden, New York, working as a columnist for the ...

of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' was positive, calling the film "a crackling and original work" with a "knockout performance by the admirable Mr. Hoffman." Gary Arnold of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' panned the film as a "snow job of a movie" and "another empty vessel that flatters itself as a powerful comment on emptiness." Nigel Andrews of ''

The Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...

'' wrote that "Ulu Grobard's film emerges as no more than an amorphous assemblage of smart ideas, whose shapelessness—in theory justified by Georgie's story being presented as reminiscences from an analyst's couch—in practice robs the film of any real dramatic momentum." As Ebert correctly predicted, Barbara Harris received an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Home media

The film has been released on VHS and was released to

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

by Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment on January 28, 2014.

Production notes

''Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?'' was filmed on location in New York City in 1970. Some of the locations include the Lunt-Fontanne Theater, the

General Motors Building A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED O ...

, and

Fillmore East The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the (at the time) Lower East Side neighborhood, now called the East Village neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan of New York City. I ...

. At the Fillmore East, Soloway performs onstage with

Shel Silverstein Sheldon Allan Silverstein (; September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American writer, poet, cartoonist, singer / songwriter, musician, and playwright. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein briefly attended university before ...

and Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show. This scene was filmed on September 18, 1970, prior to an actual Grateful Dead concert. The actual concert attendees were used as extras for the scene. The soundtrack was produced by

Ron Haffkine Ron Haffkine (born December 13 in New York City, New York) is an American record producer, composer and music manager most recognized for his work as a producer and manager of Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, an American rock band, producing hi ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? 1971 films 1971 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films Films directed by Ulu Grosbard Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City Cinema Center Films films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films