The Trouble with Harry

Moments before he accidentally dies, songwriter Tom Lasky comes home and as usual dismisses his crazy next door neighbor, Harry. Tom's mother Bess wants Tom to look after Harry as a brother outside of the institutional world. Tom instead calls the authorities to have Harry taken away to the psychiatric hospital, a move Harry begs him not to do as he knows he cannot survive in such places. Bess had always been a mother to "lost souls" which Tom resents. Tom also thinks his mother is unappreciated by those she helped. In part because of Bess' prayers for her son and the need to keep Harry out of the institutional system, Othniel decides to give Tom a second chance to save both his own life and that of Harry. Othniel sends Tom back as a homeless man who lives outside of Tom's apartment building just prior to Tom's telephone call to the authorities. As a homeless man, Tom is sent to the psychiatric institution with Harry. Tom is initially only concerned with saving his own life, but time, and getting to know Bess' motivations and Harry as a person may help Tom to change his attitude toward those around him.