charlywiles Newman is absolutely terrific as clever, cynical private-eye Lew Harper and it is one of his very best roles. The cast also features Lauren Bacall, Robert Wagner and Arthur Hill, but it's Shelley Winters, as a boozy Hollywood has-been and Julie Harris, as a love-starved "musician," who really stand out in support. William Goldman's witty, intelligent script wonderfully adapts Ross Macdonald's novel "The Moving Target" and the film is a throwback to the Bogart/Raymond Chandler potboilers of the 1940's. The film is 1960's stylish, however, and helped to revive the detective genre for a new generation. It is just great fun and the movie's success, as well as films like "The Hustler" (1961) and "Hud" (1963), endeared Newman to film projects that began with the letter "H" (although that didn't seem to work with 1984's "Harry & Son"). The recent picture "The Nice Guys" (starring Russell Crowe) tried to recapture the magic of this film, but failed miserably.

Tad Pole . . . stinks like skunk weed. If Paul Newman had played Raymond Chandler's private eye hero instead of HARPER, Paul would have used his "pull" to rechristen him "Philip HARLOWE." Similarly, if Newman was tapped for the lead in a third remake of THE MALTESE FALCON, one "Sam HADES" would be chasing the black bird--AS THE NEW TITLE CHARACTER. During the time Paul was pushing around Hollywood writers amid his tyrannical "H Period" (HUD, HUSTLER, HOMBRE, etc.), the title of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterwork was in danger of being shortened to HATSBY, if studios wished to do a 1960s adaptation starring "Ol' Blue Eyes." Other close escapes spared posterity from HORACE OF ARABIA as "Best Picture" of 1962, and HAMBONES for the top Oscar the following year (though the latter project might have held up better than actual winner TOM JONES does today). It was novelist Ross MacDonald who bore the brunt of Newman's Own hubris, as MacDonald's iconic "Lew Archer" was capriciously transmuted into title character "Lew HARPER" here. This film misfire pretty much killed off Archer's potential on the big screen, as all the king's men couldn't put his reputation back together again.

AaronCapenBanner Jack Smight directed this stylish mystery that stars Paul Newman as Lew Harper, a small-time but smart private detective about to get a big case when he is hired by a Mrs. Sampson(played by Lauren Bacall) to find her missing husband. Harper was recommended to her by her lawyer and his best friend Albert Graves(played by Arthur Hill) who is in love with her stepdaughter Miranda(played by Pamela Tiffin) who doesn't take him seriously, but instead has her eyes set on a playboy named Taggart(played by Robert Wagner) who offers his assistance to Harper, which will be needed as it turns into a complicated kidnapping case in which everyone turns out to be a suspect... Entertaining film with an intriguing mystery and good cast that also includes Janet Leigh, Robert Webber, Julie Harris, Shelley Winters, and Strother Martin.

athomed I'll size up the plot quickly. Private investigator Lew Harper (Paul Newman) is hired by Mrs. Sampson (Lauren Bacall) to find her husband, or rather, find out which woman he's shacked up with. Harper embarks on a 1960's California to find his man. Mr. Sampson's pilot Allan Taggert (Robert Wagner) and Sampson's lawyer, Albert Graves (Arthur Hill), aid in the search at various times.This is one Newman's "H" movies, like Hud and Hombre. "H" must have been Newman's lucky letter, because he had some of his biggest hits at this time. The movie really is Newman's. His magnetism as a leading man keeps us invested in the plot, but not burdened by it.The supporting cast here is excellent, from top to bottom. Bacall, as a bit of a homage to Bogie, is cast as the worried--as if--wife. Her "frigid" remarks and sass help us to understand the character of Mr. Sampson better. Hill plays the lawyer and an old friend of Harper's. He's a great addition to the cast as the square of the group. Wagner holds his own and gives Newman someone to sarcastically call "beauty." Pamela Tiffin as Mr. Sampson's daughter, Miranda, is gorgeous, and that's what she's there for. Then you've got Janet Leigh as the wife who wants to divorce Harper. We've even got Shelley Winters as the former starlet who's put on a few pounds.This movie isn't very well-known these days. I think it's a great private eye flick with Newman on the screen and director Jack Smight at the helm. People go back and forth about the ending, but I think it fits perfectly.