All of TVGuide.com Videos Only

Who's Harry Crumb?

1989, Movie, PG-13, 87 mins

Who's Harry Crumb?: Review

It's hard to imagine just who would care enough to pose the title question of this boring detective farce. John Candy stars as Harry Crumb, a spectacularly inept private eye who has been exiled to the Tulsa office of a nationwide detective firm founded by his grandfather and currently run by the weaselish Eliot Draisen (Jeffrey Jones). When the daughter of one of the firm's wealthy clients is kidnaped, Draisen summons Crumb to Los Angeles to take the case. After the some predictable blundering, car chases, the donning of a variety of disguises, and the standard big-scale destructive sight gags, Crumb--almost accidentally--brings the villains to justice. Candy manages to squeeze a few laughs from the crude and cliche-ridden script, but Paul Flaherty directs broadly and obviously, with little feeling for comic pacing. Shawnee Smith is appealing as the kidnaped girl's younger sister who helps Crumb, and Barry Corbin lends solid support as the distraught, good-hearted father, but both Jones and Annie Potts have been much funnier elsewhere. leave a comment