
The film was released in the United Kingdom on July 6, 1989, and failed to reach the Top 15. Who's Harry Crumb? grossed $10,982,364 in North America. In the end, Harry takes over as the new president of his family's business, and promptly accepts a new assignment to investigate another case, this time a murder committed in a gay bar. Casey applauds Harry for solving the case. Harry is thanked for his heroism in the case and even Det. Jennifer is freed and Eliot is found.įalsely believing Harry has deduced his part in the kidnapping and exasperated with Harry's dumb luck, Eliot confesses and is taken into police custody. Harry arrives to confront Helen and Barnes just as their plane prepares to take off. He makes the mistake of informing Helen of his plans she and Barnes take the money and leave him bound and gagged. She tries to get rid of her husband on several occasions and does her best – along with Barnes – to get the ransom for herself.Īlso assigned to the case is Police Detective Casey, who (unlike Harry) is competent and experienced in kidnapping cases and has a strongly negative opinion of private eyes.Įliot escapes to the airport, bound for Buenos Aires. Helen is desired by Eliot, but all she is interested in is money. Harry deduces that Nikki's stepmother, Helen Downing, is having an affair with tennis coach Vince Barnes, and concludes she is behind the kidnapping. He is assisted in his investigation by P.J.'s younger daughter, Nikki, who is considerably smarter than he is. Harry returns to Los Angeles (by bus) from an assignment in the firm's Tulsa, Oklahoma branch office (which he messed up, as usual). Eliot knows that Harry is incompetent and counts on this fact to get away with the crime. the services of Harry Crumb, the last descendant of the agency's founders. To give the appearance of taking the investigation seriously, Eliot offers P.J. with one of his capable detectives because, as it turns out, Eliot himself is the organizer of the kidnapping. Her father turns to a family friend, Eliot Draisen, who is president of the detective agency Crumb & Crumb, to investigate the case.Įliot is reluctant to supply P.J.

While visiting a health studio in Beverly Hills, fashion model Jennifer Downing, the daughter of millionaire P.J. The story concerns the often incompetent, sometimes brilliant, private investigator Harry Crumb, who searches for a kidnapping victim. An uncredited cameo appearance is made by Jim Belushi. Paul Flaherty directed the film, which co-stars Annie Potts, Jeffrey Jones and Shawnee Smith. He also wears several disguises throughout the film that, in my opinion, played to stereotypes in poor taste.Who's Harry Crumb? is a 1989 American comedy- mystery film featuring John Candy as the title character. Perhaps that will work for other people but for me it just rubbed me the wrong way. Instead he almost has a swagger and confidence in spite of his ineptitude. Sure Harry creates messes and blunders but without the child-like innocence. Perhaps it’s unfair of me to make the comparison but this wasn’t present in Who’s Harry Crumb.
HARRY CRUMB MOVIE
There was a child-like innocence to him in that movie that kept you hooked into him as he created one mess after another. In his role in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (my absolute favorite John Candy movie) he played a guy who was an overbearing loud-mouth but you still knew he had a kind heart and you couldn’t help but excuse his antics. But unlike other John Candy roles I’ve seen, he never struck me as lovable or someone that I really wanted to root for in the movie. Compared to the virtual parade of low-life’s in this movie he is a saint. He’s a decent enough guy, don’t get me wrong.

Part of the problem for me was that I never really found myself caring for Harry Crumb. But I never really got hooked into it as much as I was hoping. Namely one about getting out from other people’s shadows and finding your own talents and worth in your own way. There are definitely humorous aspects to this movie and it is meant to deliver what I think is a great message.
