- The one thing Harper has that the old films noir didn't is color. Naturally, this is not an essential ingredient of a style famous for and named after its dim lighting, murky moralities, and shadowy situations, but it does allow for an argument that Harper isn't merely twenty years late to the party. Instead, one could claim that color processing, and technicolor in particular, excel at capturing the superficial gaudiness of Southern California that was only hinted at in pure black and white. Everything else about the film, however, from Lew Harper's (Paul Newman) gum-chewing, wisecracking antics to a stable of actresses from some of the most famous classic noirs, is material we've seen somewhere before.
- The story, adopted from a Ross Macdonald novel, is an extreme case of potboiling that gets cooking when the well-preserved Mrs. Sampson (Lauren Bacall) hires Harper to find her missing husband. There are the usual leisurely hangers-on at the Sampson home, including daughter Miranda (Pamela Tiffin) and personal pilot Allan (Robert Wagner), and before long the list of suspects extends to include a nightclub singer (Julie Harris) with a drug habit, a comically washed-up movie star (Shelley Winters), said star's suspicious husband (Robert Webber), and even a bizarre new-age cult leader (Strother Martin) who resides on top of a local mountain. Harper seeks out some assistance from his best pal Albert (Arthur Hill) and ex-wife Susan (Janet Leigh), but one could argue that neither of them does him much good in the long run.
- The most impressive parts of Harper are its settings, which include some terrifically decadent and palatial homes and one colossal shipping graveyard. While none of the acting is bad, Newman's chuckle-filled method approach isn't especially appropriate for a supposedly hard-boiled dick, and only Shelley Winters stands out in her role as the show-stealing alcoholic has-been. The rest is director Jack Smight's goofy take on a familiar set of themes and plot points that fully crosses over into absurdity when the pot finally stops boiling. While the color helps, I'll admit that I can think of several black and white films starring Bacall, Winters, Leigh, or Newman that I would rather have watched.
- Allegedly, it was Newman who pushed for the film to begin with an "H." Also, Macdonald's character of Lew Archer was apparently named after Miles Archer from The Maltese Falcon.
