When William Goldman wrote the first scene of his 1966 film Harper (and one that was, incidentally, written last), he knew he had made it as a screenwriter. After having read Ross Macdonald’s novels about fictional private eye Lew Archer, Goldman suggested to producer Elliott Kastner that they adapt The Moving Target, the series’ first installment. They later changed the name of the character to Lew Harper for two reasons. The first being that they got the film rights to only one novel, not all of them. And the second was that Paul Newman, who came on to portray the protagonist, wanted his character to have a surname that began with an H, seeing as how he had had major success with movies whose titles started with that very letter. But Newman was not the first choice for the lead—Frank Sinatra turned down the role and made it possible for Newman to make a film that established him as one of the coolest movie stars of the 60s.
Harper was directed by Jack Smight, a former TV director who had signed a deal with Warner Bros a few years earlier—he was to direct six pictures, and this was the second one of the bunch. Smight later said that he wanted to bring a bit of Double Indemnity to Harper, a goal he ultimately achieved. We got a fun and fast-paced detective story about a missing husband and a wife intent on finding out what happened to him. Aside from Newman, the film stars Lauren Bacall, Janet Leigh, Shelley Winters and Julie Harris.
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