Review of Harper (1966) by Jose Luis M — 01 Jan 2015

Something intangible is missing, and that something is the curious kind of "cool" that Mr. Bogart used to establish in these tersely detached detective roles. Mr. Newman is an interesting actor. He can he cynical, casual, cruel and can convey an air of personal anguish that is appropriate to his noncommitted role. But he is too fresh, too ruggedly good looking to be consistent as the sort of beat-up slob that his shady detective is intended to be and as Mr. Bogart used to be.

The genius in Bogey's performance was the fly-blown integrityâ??the sort of consumptive valorâ??he generated in slobs. Mr. Newman makes his detective more a smoothie on the order of James Bond and that isn't quite the characteristic for the self-condemned loser in this film.