THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY

Shot in 1969, Michael Roemer didn't release his film until last year, because it wasn't funny then. It's funny now, though. The twenty-year delay provides an unexpected appeal to this wonderfully modest and comic story that perfectly captures the pre-hippie 1960s like no recreation of today ever could. Harry Plotnik, a smalltime Jewish gangster, has just been released from prison. While he was locked up, Blacks and Hispanics usurped his control, and now he's a gangster without a territory. When he tries to buy his way into middle-class respectability, he discovers that his money is welcome, but he is not. Harry is alone and out of touch, and realizes that it is time to turn his life around. Roemer's careful direction makes for a convincing and entertaining time capsule of a film.