Harriet the Spy (film)

Harriet the Spy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bronwen Hughes
Produced by	Marykay Powell
Screenplay by	Doug Petrie Theresa Rebeck
Story by	Greg Taylor Julie Talen
Based on	Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Starring	Michelle Trachtenberg Gregory Smith Rosie O'Donnell
Music by	Jamshied Sharifi
Cinematography	Francis Kenny
Editing by	Debra Chiate
Studio	Rastar Nickelodeon Movies
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	July 10, 1996 (1996-07-10)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$13 million
Box office	$26,570,048 (domestic)

Harriet the Spy is a 1996 comedy-drama and mystery film adaptation of the 1964 novel of the same name by Louise Fitzhugh, and starring Michelle Trachtenberg as the title character.

This film was directed by Bronwen Hughes, produced by Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies and Rastar. This was the first film that was produced under the Nickelodeon Movies banner, and the first of two film adaptations of the Harriet the Spy books. In theaters, the pilot episode of Hey Arnold! was shown before the film.

The film was shot in the Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale and Miami, plus Toronto, Ontario.

Plot

Harriet (Michelle Trachtenberg) is an eleven-year-old sixth grader young spy who is best friends with Simon "Sport" Rocque (Gregory Smith) and Janie Gibbs (Vanessa Lee Chester). She lives a privileged life with her parents and her nanny, Katherine "Ole Golly" (Rosie O'Donnell) who's the only person who knows all the things that Harriet has been snooping on. Harriet and her friends are enemies with mainly Marion Hawthorne (Charlotte Sullivan). For awhile, Harriet lives a well life being a spy and having fun with Golly.

One night, Golly invites a friend over and Harriet, Golly and Golly's friend go to dinner and a movie, where things turn into a disaster. Mrs. Welch fires Golly for letting Harriet stay out late and then begs her to stay. Golly tells her that Harriet is old enough to take care of herself much to everyone's protests. After Harriet bids Golly goodbye, she becomes depressed and withdrawn. She even gets caught when investigating the nether regions of Agatha K Plummer (Eartha Kitt).

The next day, she plays with her friends at the park and disaster strikes. Marion Hawthorne finds Harriet's private notebook and begins reading out all of Harriet's notes. Everyone finds that they're all hurtful and even Sport and Janie turn their backs on Harriet. The kids create a Spy-Catcher club and torment Harriet on her spy routes.

After running into a police officer, Harriet gets her notebook taken away by her parents. Her parents tell Harriet's teacher Mrs. Elson (Nancy Beatty) to search Harriet everyday for notebooks much to Harriet's embarrassment. One day, during art, a Marion Hawthorne "accidentally" pours paint all over Harriet and she does things to get back at everyone individually.

Harriet's parents find out what she has done to her classmates and send her to be evaluated by a psychologist who assures them that Harriet is fine. Harriet then tries to apologize to Sport and Janie and soon gets appointed as the editor of the sixth grade paper by her classmates. She apologizes to everyone and all is well. On opening night of the 6th Grade pageant, Janie and Harriet light off a stinkbomb and dance until the end of the film.

Cast

• Michelle Trachtenberg as Harriet M. Welsch
• Gregory Smith as Simon "Sport" Rocque
• Vanessa Lee Chester as Janie Gibbs
• Rosie O'Donnell as Catherine "Ole Golly"
• J. Smith-Cameron as Mrs. Welsch
• Robert Joy as Mr. Welsch
• Eartha Kitt as Agatha K. Plummer
• Charlotte Sullivan as Marion Hawthorne
• Teisha Kim as Rachel Hennessy
• Cecilley Carroll as Beth Ellen Hansen
• Dov Tiefenbach as Boy with Purple Socks
• Nina Shock as Carrie Andrews
• Connor Devitt as Pinky Whitehead
• Alisha Morrison as Laura Peters
• Nancy Beatty as Miss Elson
• James Gilfillan as Archie Simmons
• Gerry Quigley as Sport's Dad
• Jackie Richardson as Janie's Mother
• Roger Clown as Dr. Wagner

Soundtrack

The original motion picture soundtrack for Harriet the Spy was released on CD and audio cassette on July 23, 1996 by Castle Records, 13 days after the film's theatrical release and Jamshied Sharifi is the composer for the movie.

1. "Harriet the Spy" (Jamshied Sharifi)
2. "Trash Tower" (Jamshied Sharifi)
3. "Wack Wack" (Young-Holt Unlimited)
4. "Sous Le Soleil De Bodega" (Les Négresses Vertes)
5. "Harriet Runs" (Jamshied Sharifi)
6. "Golly Leaves" (Jamshied Sharifi)
7. "Sad Harriet/No Cats" (Jamshied Sharifi)
8. "Agatha Exterior" (Jamshied Sharifi)
9. "Agatha Interior" (Jamshied Sharifi)
10. "Uska Dura" (Eartha Kitt)
11. "Arrollando" (Jamshied Sharifi)
12. "Reading The Notebook" (Jamshied Sharifi)
13. "Harriet Confronts Marion" (Jamshied Sharifi)
14. "Crate With Legs" (Jamshied Sharifi)
15. "Evil Harriet" (Jamshied Sharifi)
16. "Her Own World" (Jamshied Sharifi)
17. "Class Vote" (Jamshied Sharifi)
18. "Get Up Offa That Thing" (James Brown)
19. "Coyote Mambo" (Jamshied Sharifi)
20. "Cruisin" (Jamshied Sharifi)
21. "The Secretive Life" (Jill Sobule)

The songs Ran Kan Kan by Tito Puente and Straitjackets by Los Straitjackets are absent from the soundtrack.

Box office and release

The film was released in US theaters on July 10, 1996, and the film grossed $6,601,651 on its opening weekend, averaging about $3,615 per each of the 1,826 screens it was shown on. The film went on to gross a total of $26,570,048 by November 10, 1996, and was considered a box office success, earning back double its $13,000,000 budget. The film currently has a 48% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

See also

• Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, a 2010 American-Canadian television film starring Jennifer Stone in the titular role.

External links

• Harriet the Spy at the Internet Movie Database
• Harriet The Spy at AllRovi
• Harriet The Spy at Rotten Tomatoes
• Harriet The Spy at Box Office Mojo