User Reviews

I've seen this movie 3 times and look forward to seeing again and again. It's on my holiday wish list in DVD. Paul Mazursky's tale was surely written well, but nobody could have done it better than Carney. He truly separated himself from a possible type cast situation from his days as Ed Norton. And in the end who doesn't cry when Tonto passes? But, I've always been a fan of Art Carney and this movie is one of the main reasons why. I highly recommend it and give a giant thumbs up.

This was a role that was written specifically for James Cagney but he refused to end his retirement at that time so Art Carney stepped in and surprised everyone with his often neglected dramatic skills. Story is about a widower in his seventies in New York City who has to vacate his apartment because his building is being torn down. Carney plays Harry Coombes who along with his cat Tonto has to go live with one of his sons Burt (Philip Burns) but it doesn't work out and Harry decides to travel to Chicago and visit his daughter. Harry turns down the opportunity to fly and decides to go by bus instead but Tonto can't go to the bathroom so Harry is left on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. He buys a used car and picks up a teenage runaway named Ginger (Melanie Mayron). The two of them decide to see Harry's first love Jessie (Geraldine Fitzgerald) who is in a retirement home and then when they get to Chicago they stay with Harry's daughter Shirley (Ellen Burstyn).

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

Harry lets his nephew Norman (Josh Mostel) take Ginger in his car and now he decides to hitchhike across country to Los Angeles. Along the way he encounters a vitamin salesmen (Arthur Hunnicutt), a prostitute (Barbara Rhoades), and after getting arrested in Las Vegas he meets Sam Two Feathers (Chief Dan George) while in jail. Once he arrives in Los Angeles he meets up with his other son Eddie (Larry Hagman) who is down in his luck. Harry stays in L.A. and while there Tonto passes away from old age but Southern California seems to agree with him and Harry decides to live there.

This film was directed by Paul Mazursky who has the rare ability to write and direct both comedy and drama. In some of his films he combines both genre's as he does here. Mazursky's scripts are all well written and his films come off as both poignant and insightful. This is the case here and this film balances both comedy and drama extremely well. The overall story of the film is serious but there are enough comedic moments and characters that keep this from becoming heavy handed. At first glance this appears to be a lightweight story but I could see in the script that this was a film about an elderly man that suddenly had nowhere to go and most of his friends were dead. It's got to be a terrifying feeling to wake-up and be old and people are telling you that your a burden. At the heart of this film is an excellent performance by Carney. He only had two good roles in films and besides this he starred in "The Late Show" with Lily Tomlin. Carney was only 56 when he was cast but he made up for it with a performance that is both sad and relevant. Carney plays a man that is really scared but hides it well with a personality that everyone (Including strangers) takes an instant shine to. The one scene that shows his anger and sadness is when he thinks he may have lost Tonto after getting off the bus. Tonto represented the last grasp of Harry being a useful man and being needed. Carney never allows his performance to go over the top into sentimentality and it's his strong and restrained effort that makes this film work. Yes, we all know that this shouldn't have garnered him an Oscar but the main success of this film was the result of his performance.

I had ignored this movie initially, because I did not particularly like Art Carney in "Honeymooners" and I supposed I would be unable to separate characters. I was wrong. Harry is absolutely and unmistakably Harry, an old relic with some superannuated friends and a cat. From here on, I may cite some "spoilers", but I find that essentially all have already been remarked on: I just want to comment on what people seem not to have noticed.

First, notice his amazing resilience. He's past 70 and he has lost nearly every anchor of his life, his wife, his profession, his good friend, his lifelong home, everything but his cat. I happen to be very near Harry's age, and you young folks of 40 or so may not notice what a devastating combination this could have been. he might have moved in with his son's dysfunctional family, but he won't give in to that prospect. he might fly to chicago, but the nice folks from the TSA won't take his cat and he damn-well won't give him up. He might try taking the bus, but Tonto's basic cat-ness shuts out that possibility. I would have understood if Harry had given up at that point, got falling-down drunk and died at the side of the road. But he pushes on. He acquires an old used car that could have been the centerpiece of slapstick scene (but wasn't) and gains a 15 (or 16 or 18) year old girl as a traveling companion, admitting to her, as they settle into a motel for the night, "actually, I am a little uncomfortable with this." From the viewpoint of my age, that is an absolutely delicious line! Harry begins to shed years as he goes on: notice him insisting to his daughter that his young friend is not a ''loose woman". When he gives away his car, look closely and read his feelings for the girl. Again and again, we see his resilience and adaptability in this profoundly human quest-genre story. I found the ending at that broad Pacific beach very satisfying, though it left open the simplistic question "so what happened next?" Harry is a marvelous character, and the story told just as much about him as was needed, no less, no more. I came late to this movie, but I agree. Art Carney earned his award for thus gentle portrayal.

Harry Coombes (Art Carney) was talking about his neighborhood when he made the comment in my summary line above, but he could just as easily have been talking about the relationship with his family, old friend Jacob, or even himself. The story is about running down, growing old, and re-evaluating one's life for missed opportunities and what might have been.

I was surprised by another reviewer's mention that Carney took the role after it was written for, but turned down by James Cagney. Interestingly, Carney and Cagney appeared together a full decade later in the TV movie, "Terrible Joe Moran", in which Cagney portrays the main character not unlike Harry in a lot of ways. In that film, Carney is Cagney's neighbor and friend, sharing pearls of wisdom with Cagney's estranged granddaughter and the viewer.

The story of "Harry and Tonto" is played in a series of vignettes once Harry is forcibly removed from his New York City apartment, making way for an urban parking lot. That in itself is a disquieting commentary on modern life, when a commercial parking structure carries more value than human life. Though Harry has every reason to be cynical over the way the lives of his sons and daughter turned out, that doesn't seem to be his way, as Harry takes it all in stride and appears to rise above the fray. He also has an acceptance of ultimate finality, as one is conditioned by the death of Jacob, setting us up for the eventual demise of traveling companion Tonto. Still, it's hard to keep a dry eye over Harry's loss.

My favorite scene was the one with Harry arrested and in jail with cell-mate Chief Dan George. As Sam Two-Feathers, the Chief is dead pan hilarious discussing how he put the death spell on Edgar Red Bear, and how he was once jailed for his horse dumping in a hotel lobby. Quoting his character Old Lodge Skins from the movie "Little Big Man" - Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it doesn't'. Fans of Art Carney will probably agree that in this film, most of the time the magic works.

I caught this on Talking Television Pictures, a Freeview channel (81) in the UK which has built up a solid following in recent years due to its showing of vintage shows and films including classics that have perhaps fallen out of favour, receive rare viewings (The Killing of Sister George) or whose lustre has dimmed over time.

It was interesting to read that Art Carney won an Oscar for his performance here. It is certainly winning in terms of appeal, but it comes as a surprise when you discover that he beat the likes of Jack Nicholson & Al Pacino to the prize in a film that was not otherwise garlanded with Oscar nominations.

Harry, a retired widower, finds himself uprooted from his familiar New York surroundings. After a frenetic start, the film settles into a slower pace perhaps echoing the Zen Buddhism read by Norman, Harry's oddball grandson with whom he builds a quiet rapport, two outsiders bonding with each other. This is an interesting movie though I agree with the review that believed the film's slow pace can detract from its main point, which is about how imagination transcends the generations (the final scene of a young boy on a beach, building sandcastles, Ginger, Norman).

I enjoyed the scenes where Harry connects with younger people, crossing the generational divide. He has a habit of whistling old songs, and Ginger, the young runaway - who has hitched a lift with him - recognizes one tune much to his surprise. She knows of Isadora Duncan, too, so that she reminds him of his first serious love. He connects with his apparently oddball grandson, taking a genuine interest in what he is reading (Zen Buddhism), treating him with patience & tolerance (in stark contrast to his brother) and even questioning him about drugs (specifically mind-expanding ones rather than the hard stuff).

I did find the occasional scene felt out of place. For instance, the scene where Harry is given a lift by a high-class prostitute. Later, we see him in Las Vegas ambling around, looking rather pleased with himself. The film often handles the delicate subject of old age & sex, but this just seemed to be ridiculously out of step & unbelievable. It sat uneasily with the earlier, much more tender and real scenes when Harry & Ginger take a diversion to visit his first love.

Harry is very much an outsider, which is what being old means in a world interested in the constantly new. He forms part of an odd couple with his pet cat Tonto, which leads to a range of mishaps that lead them on a haphazard, rambling journey crisscrossing America, via NYC to Chicago and then finally onto Los Angeles.

Harry eventually goes with the flow (Buddhism), becoming less attached to things (his car, the gizmo he hands on to the native American he meets in a cell), but more to life itself and the short duration that remains to him. Tonto's demise was handled rather abruptly, but perhaps that was the point. Perhaps, by now, Harry has accepted one of the tenets of Buddhism, the constant cycle of life. The final image has Harry following a cat, uncannily like Tonto, on to a beach where he finds a little boy happily building sandcastles (an echo of Harry as a child?)

Watching the film, I couldn't help being reminded of 'About Schmidt' which I consider a better film (in terms of pace), covering similar themes. It, is also about a retired widower journeying across America and experiencing a series of adventures, and perhaps benefits from a narrative regarding his daughter's impending nuptials.

Instead of a cat, the loner hero, Schmidt, addresses his monologues and thoughts to a child who he is helping to sponsor in Africa, and like Schmidt, Harry is a man without any real purpose in life anymore, now that his children are adults, apart from looking after Tonto. Interestingly, Jack Nicholson was Oscar nominated for a role very much akin to the sort of performance that saw Carney beat him to the Best Actor nod, a touching, humorous portrait of an old man at odds with the world around him.

1974 sentimental tear jerker starring Art Carney as an old geezer traveling across country with his cat, Tonto. Yes, Tonto dies -- has to! -- it's some kind of requirement in sentimental films that pets die. (See: The Yearling, Old Yeller, Marley & Me, Turner & Hooch and countless others.)

This turned up on late night TV recently and I recognized it instantly at a glance and stayed to watch. I first saw this in a theatre in '74, when I was but a lass of 18 (do the math). I've probably caught it on TV once or twice in the 48 years (GULP!) since then. So I was a kid when I saw it originally and now I am ... a decade older than Art Carney was he filmed this.

Carney was merely 56, and in heavy makeup, but he does an excellent job of coming across as an older man (though perhaps 65 vs. 72). He seems suspiciously fit and healthy for 72, but of course... he's a charmer. Probably not Oscar material (though he won!) except on sentiment for The Honeymooners and a long career (against Jack Nicholson! Chinatown!) but hey, OK.

Of course to an 18 year old... 56 is as old as 72 and vice versa.

It's a sweet, if long and slow movie. I see parallels here with a 1994 film, called "The Straight Story" featuring the late Richard Farnsworth (who was authentically 80-something). Both are tales of elderly men undergoing a "hejira" -- a spiritual and physical journey -- in the last chapter of their lives.

This film is perhaps a bit too filled with contrivances; the cat can't go on an airplane? (not even true today in the era of Homeland Security!) in a carrier? More likely you wouldn't be able to take a cat on a BUS. And all the people Harry meets seem so contrived: a widow at the end offers him a free room in her apartment plus free Jewish cooking (she's not terrified of a strange homeless man she meets on the beach? He's not afraid of a senile nutty woman with no boundaries? Santa Monica is affordable? Boy, 50 years HAVE gone by!) He also seems to find a new, younger incarnation of his beloved Tonto.

A harmless film, with some sweetness to it and a lot of good actors in small supporting roles... but not very deep about the realities of old age and infirmity, as Harry is, of course, a 56 year old in the GUISE of a 72 year old. A well liked, well reviewed film in its day and of course that Oscar win for the legendary Art Carney.

Conclusion: if you have nothing better to do, or want to wax sentimental about the 70s, when a senior on an SS check and nothing more could afford to live in $$$$$ Santa Monica near the ocean.