’Secrets of the Mystic Knights of the Sojourners’

   

The Plot Against Harry opened at Film Forum on Houston Street. Play and advance to the 56-minute mark.

There is nothing at all Masonic in the plot of The Plot Against Harry, but there’s a minute and a half of funny fraternal initiation along the way.

An independent film—so independent that twenty years lapsed between its completion and its 1989 release—that recalls Cassavetes and La Nouvelle Vague, its beauty is revealed through steady deadpan absurdism (either you get it, or you don’t) and gelastic supporting characters. Which takes us to the meeting of the Mystic Knights of the Sojourners into which eponymous antihero Harry Plotnick (Martin Priest), a freshly paroled numbers-runner, is initiated, thanks to his lavish gift to the order’s pediatric hospital.

The Mystic Knights of the Sojourners initiates Harry Plotnick in Michael Roemer’s The Plot Against Harry.

Again, not Masonic, but there’s plenty to recognize and laugh at.

The Commander of the Mystic Knights (Leonard Margolin) presides over the initiation.

This is eighty-one minutes of ethnic humor, despairing misfortunes, and an O. Henry-like climax that Gene Siskel labeled “a very difficult film to describe,” and co-host Roger Ebert concurring with “I don’t know where to start with this movie.” The acting is supernal—effortless maybe—by the cast of unknowns, none of whom seemed to have achieved any progress in film or television.

Leo (Ben Lang), at left, the current husband of Harry’s ex-wife, sponsors his initiation.

The Plot Against Harry opened in revival Friday night at Film Forum, and will play through September 7. I caught it during my university days somewhere in midtown. If New Yorkers still went to the movies, that run would be extended a week, but get there when you can.

UPDATE: Extended through the 14th!