Harper
Harper is a 1966 American mystery thriller film starring Paul Newman, with Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Wagner and Shelley Winters in support. Directed by Jack Smight from a screenplay by William Goldman, the picture is based on the 1949 novel The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald. Newman plays private investigator Lew Harper, based on the protagonist of Macdonald's series of detective stories.
Plot
Private investigator Lew Harper is retained by an old pal, attorney Albert Graves, to search for Graves' employer, multi-millionaire Ralph Sampson. He has disappeared after flying into Los Angeles, and Sampson's physically disabled wife Elaine wants to ensure her estranged husband is not squandering the fortune she hopes to inherit. Harper interviews Allan Taggert, Sampson's private pilot, and his flirtatious daughter Miranda, object of Albert's desire. An old photo of a glamorous starlet in Sampson's bungalow leads Harper to Fay Estabrook, now an aging alcoholic. Harper gets her drunk to see if she is connected to Sampson's disappearance. When she passes out, he encounters the armed Dwight Troy, Fay's husband, who falls for Harper's cover story that he is a fan of the former star.
More details
| author | William Goldman |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | California |
| director | Jack Smight |
| editor | Stefan Arnsten |
| genre | mystery thriller |
| keywords | abandon connect dead man disabled drive estrange flee fly hatred holy man kidnap kill lew archer lew harper los angeles murder night out nothing oil tanker private investigator ransom note secret lover smuggle |
| musicBy | Johnny Mandel |
| producer | Elliott Kastner Jerry Gershwin |
| publisher | Warner Bros. |
| recordedAt | Malibu |
| theme | missing people mystery thriller neo-noir urban |