Annie Potts gives the part of the scheming, gold-digger wife her sexpot all. The problem comes from the script from Robert Conte and Peter Martin Wortmann. Another sequence involves an air duct that happens to be big enough for someone the size of John Candy to crawl around in, with air conditioning powerful enough to shoot someone the size of John Candy through and out of the building.Īn excellent supporting cast surrounds Candy, all appealing in their respective roles. If he sold that egg that was bound to break, none of what occurs would happen. Still, he is also shown to have a priceless 90-million-year-old pterodactyl egg in his possession that he keeps on his desk in such a way that Crumb nearly breaks it several times (before he does). For instance, we learn early on that Draisen is the one responsible for the ransom request, hoping to use the collected money to lure the gold-digging Helen to his amorous schemes. Some of the jokes and plot points make little sense. While Candy’s sweet-natured humanity comes out underneath, the character as written is decidedly one-dimensional, forcing the big guy to mug desperately for each forced laugh. Candy gets to don a variety of disguises and accents, though, like many comedies of the 1980s, some are viewed today as examples of the cultural and ethnic insensitivity of Hollywood’s yesteryear. Plenty of physical comedy is on display, some quite funny, such as when klutzy Crumb gets his tie caught into an industrial shredder, and he tries desperately to get out before anyone sees him. Also, he would feel comfortable by working with other talented entertainers he knew and trusted from his “SCTV” days.Ĭandy gets to utilize many of his comedic skills to try to bring the comedy to life. He worked with Candy to ensure that the entire film would conform to John Candy’s talents, which included lots of physical humor and off-the-wall characters for him to play. Milchan had made many excellent films up to that point, including The King of Comedy, Once Upon a Time in America and Brazil. Not only would Candy serve as Executive Producer, but Candy’s friend, Arnon Milchan, would also produce the film. Up until then, he had little creative input on the films he made and parts he would play within them. Candy felt that Who’s Harry Crumb? would be the turning point in his movie career. The biggest draw, of course, is John Candy himself. The editing of the set-pieces makes it hard to tell just what’s going on from moment to moment. The direction in this film, in general, is as clumsy and awkward as its main character. Crumb begins to use his penchant for disguises to get to the bottom of things.ĭirected by Paul Flaherty, who worked on “SCTV” with Candy for many years as a writer for that skit comedy show, along with his brother Joe, one of the leading players of that cult show who makes a small appearance in Who’s Harry Crumb?. Downing (Corbin) and his philandering new wife Helen (Potts). Draisen flies out Crumb to Los Angeles to crack the case involving the kidnapping and ransom of Jennifer Downing, the beautiful heiress daughter of P.D. Ineptitude is just what the CEO of the company, Eliot Draisen, in Los Angeles wants from an investigator for reasons of his own. Instead of running the company, he is relegated to being a lowly trainee as their Tulsa office. Uncle Buck, released later the same year, would be the one to break him through.Ĭandy plays Harry Crumb, the bumbling son who never quite lived up to the reputation of his sleuthing father and grandfather in his family’s long-standing detective agency. Unfortunately, he is likable and talented, but it’s not enough. Crumb marks his first headliner since Going Berserk, when Candy was mostly a nobody outside of Canada. After a career mostly playing comic relief side characters or sharing the bill with other performers, John Candy gets to show what he can do with a film that allows him to cut loose with his many comedic talents. Who’s Harry Crumb? is a ridiculous slapstick comedy in the vein of the later Pink Panther films, where most of the laughs come from how sophomoric the makers of the film are willing to go to embarrass the protagonist.
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