History Theatre / Harvey

* TheFilmOfThePlay: The original Broadway production of the play ran for almost five years and was directed by Antoinette Perry, the namesake of the [[UsefulNotes/TonyAwardWinners Tony Awards]]. Former {{Vaudeville}} star Frank Fay[[note]]One-time husband of Creator/BarbaraStanwyck, reputedly the inspiration for [[Film/AStarIsBorn1937 Norman Maine]], and a notorious supporter of Fascism[[/note]] originated the role of Elwood P. Dowd, but Creator/JimmyStewart was one of the replacements as Dowd later in the Broadway run. Also reprising their Broadway roles in the 1950 film were Josephine Hull as Veta (who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar) and Jesse White as Wilson. And there have been many other made-for-TV adaptations over the years, including one with Stewart as Dowd once again. Plans for a modern-day remake have fallen into DevelopmentHell, with Creator/{{Netflix}} announcing in late 2018 that they were going to take a shot at remaking it.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* SanitySlippage: Veta progressively becomes more unbalanced as the story goes on, as if she's losing contact with reality and cannot make up her mind if Harvey is real or not. [[spoiler: She gets better at the end, in that she can accept Harvey so long as Elwood stays as nice as he always is.]]

* HalfEmptyTwoShot: To keep Harvey in-frame.

* CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure: Here you can see how the boundaries between patient and therapist gradually merge. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sq-g-UXuMk Poor, poor thing]]. The movie’s ending seems to suggest that the therapist went insane with a nonexistent Harvey, and if you believe that Harvey is RealAfterAll, Elwood ends with the real Harvey… [[MindScrew or… something]]

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Chumley still wants to get Harvey to himself in the movie, but he doesn't offer to lock up Veta nor does he make the conscious decision to get Elwood out of the picture to take the pooka away from Elwood, instead just going along with the plan. As a byproduct of this, he gets a straightforward happy ending where Elwood let’s Harvey go with him until he's lived out his dream at which point he returns.

* CloudCuckoolander: Elwood, much to Veta and Myrtle Mae's dismay. Even if Harvey is shown to be real, it doesn't change the fact that Elwood's demeanor is odd.

** Heck, it's even the page quote!

* CloudCuckoolander: Elwood, much to Veta and Myrtle Mae's dismay. Even when Harvey is shown to be real, it doesn't change the fact that Elwood's demeanor is odd.

* InsaneEqualsViolent The Sanitarium staff certainly seems to think so. They are absolutely terrified when they realize that they may have let a 'psycho' (the unfailingly pleasant Dowd) walk out, and automatically presume that he Dr. Chumley's continued absence meant that Dowd got violent and left him in a ditch somewhere.

* CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure: You can see here you can see how the boundaries between patient and therapist gradually merge. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sq-g-UXuMk Poor, poor thing]]. The movie’s ending seems to suggest that the therapist went insane with a nonexistent Harvey, and if you believe that Harvey is RealAfterAll, Elwood ends with the real Harvey… [[MindScrew or… something]]

* CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure: You can see here you can see how the boundaries between patient and therapist gradually merge. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sq-g-UXuMk Poor, poor thing]]. The movie’s ending seems to suggest that the therapist went insane with an inexistent Harvey and if you believe that Harvey is RealAfterAll, Elwood ends with the real Harvey… [[MindScrew or… something]]

--> "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint Well why not? Harvey was here.]]"

A classic, UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize-winning 1944 play by Mary Chase which has been [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted to the screen]] several times, including a 1950 film starring Creator/JimmyStewart and a 1996 MadeForTVMovie starring Creator/HarryAnderson. Creator/JimParsons has starred in it on stage as well.

[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/harvey_1950_poster.jpg]]

Of course, since he is invisible and usually unobtrusive, his existence is frequently doubted.

A classic, UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize-winning 1944 play by Mary Chase which has been adapted to the screen several times, including a 1950 film starring Creator/JimmyStewart and a 1996 MadeForTVMovie starring Creator/HarryAnderson. Creator/JimParsons has starred in it on stage as well.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Chumley still wants to get Harvey to himself in the movie, but he doesn't offer to lock up Veta nor does he make the conscious decision to get Elwood out of the picture to take the pooka away from Elwood, instead just going along with the plan. As a byproduct of this, he gets a straightforward happy ending where Elwood let’s Harvey go with him until he's lived out his dream.

** Mr. Wilson is absolutely terrible towards his would be patients, barely hiding his desire to beat up Elwood and being apparently being extremely inappropriate whilst handling Veta.
** Myrtle Mae comes across as pretty big brat, and unlike her mother who actually does love Elwood, she's so embarrassed by him that she wishes he'd die.