Movie Reviews : Freewheeling Nonsense in ‘Who’s Harry Crumb?’

“Who’s Harry Crumb?” (citywide)--he’s John Candy as the klutziest detective since Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau. In this pleasantly silly private-eye spoof, Crumb is a grand poseur, shamelessly self-important, slow on the uptake yet good of heart and not the complete fool he so often seems.

He’s in constant battle with objects inanimate and otherwise. Doors swing back to smack him in the nose, paper shredders make quick work of his ties, and supposedly stationary exercise bikes have a way of running out of control when he places his considerable bulk upon them. Seeing himself as a master of disguise, he dares to don jockey silks. Don’t ask how he manages to end up on top of a ceiling fan. In short, imagine Oliver Hardy playing Philip Marlowe.

You can be sure that a 90 million-year-old fossilized pterodactyl egg is in grave danger in his presence. The egg is the special treasure of the smarmy head of Crumb & Crumb (Jeffrey Jones), who has his own reasons for summoning Harry, feckless grandson of the detective agency’s founder, to Los Angeles to help out in a kidnaping case in which a beautiful heiress (Renee Coleman) is being held for a $10-million ransom.

Writers Robert Conte and Peter Martin Wortmann have come up with a gallery of deliciously skewered private-eye stereotypes. There’s the heiress’ enigmatic father (Barry Corbin); her outrageously sluttish and greedy stepmother (Annie Potts, a sexy comic delight); Potts’ rugged but thickheaded tennis-pro lover (Tim Thomerson); the laziest, most insolent butler you ever saw (Wesley Mann), and Crumb’s special nemesis, a super uptight cop (Valri Bromfield).

Most important is the kidnaped woman’s teen-age sister Nikki (Shawnee Smith, a real winner), who teams up with Crumb and in doing so emerges from the shadow of her adored glamorous sibling. The film’s free-wheeling nonsense is nicely anchored in the mutually sustaining friendship that develops between Crumb and Nikki. Director Paul Flaherty brings to the film consistent good judgment and deftness.

When so much that passes for comedy these days is the humor of unrelieved crassness and elaborate mayhem--costing fortunes in special effects and involving legions of stunt people--it’s easy to oversell a light and modest laugh-out-loud entertainment like “Who’s Harry Crumb?” (rated PG-13 for mild raunchiness). Still, you’re left glad that Candy, a sweet-natured clown who never loses his innate dignity, bows off leaving open the clear possibility of further adventures for Harry Crumb.