Harry and Marv

Harry and Marv "Crowbars up." Gender: Male (both) Type: Dimwitted Burglars Species: Humans Portrayed by: Joe Pesci (Harry) Daniel Stern (Marv) Status: Alive Media of origin: Home Alone

Harold "Harry" Lyme and Marvin "Marv" Murchins, also known as the Wet Bandits or the Sticky Bandits, or simply known as Harry and Marv, are the main antagonists of the 1990 Christmas comedy film Home Alone and its 1992 sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

Why They're Not Scared of the Dark

1. In a vein similar to both Looney Tunes' Rocky and Mugsy and 101 Dalmatians' Horace and Jasper Badun, as they serve as a perfect comic-foil to Kevin by being comical villains that we are meant to laugh at because of their silliness, pratfalls, and mishaps as a comedic duo of incompetent criminals with a wicked side. Meanwhile, Kevin is the young, snarky yet guileful and heroic trickster that we root for. And by that logic, they stand out as one of the most famous examples of a duo of silly burglars since Marv and Harry have a cartoonishly evil type of personality that makes them enjoyable to watch, with Harry serving as the grouchy smart-aleck of the duo and Marv serves as the hilariously stupid sidekick of the two, and it makes their ineptitude out to be very entertaining and hilarious to watch.
2. Despite Harry being a bumbling fool of a criminal alongside Marv, he is shown to have some intelligent and sneaky qualities. Like how he was pragmatic enough to present and disguise himself as a charismatic and protective officer in the first film so that nobody would be suspicious about the underhanded and devious activities that he does with Marv at night.
   • Especially where Harry established how he has some stealthy tactics with keeping the neighborhood safe and quiet enough to raise no suspicion around them by not causing any notable problems by telling Marv how a house they were robbing shouldn't be flooded in the first film; which shows how Harry likes to think it through with committing crimes, and in the second film, he was also smart enough to remind Marv of Kevin's predictably sadistic traps as a brief moment of outsmarting some of Kevin's plans, which is a great moment to show that Harry isn't a complete moron as he seems. While it's not to say that Harry is the smartest since he never passed 6th grade and usually has ill-conceived methods when it comes to robbery, but he still tends to come off as more discreet than Marv by comparison, making him serve as the brains of the duo with a side of showing stands as well.
3. They both make up a perfect relationship in crime, given how many pranks and setups that they both endured, and while they did deserve the tricks Kevin pulls on them for being evil, their incompetence makes them somewhat easy to sympathize with in the second film, which makes their over-the-top, burgulary antics out to be quite memorable as well.
4. Much like most of the many comedic dunderheads, Marv stands out for being a true dimwit of the duo that Harry has to keep correcting for Marv's generally idiotic and unintelligent remarks, and better yet, he always presented his idiocy hilariously and in an charming/entertaining way. Especially the moment when Marv asked when he should check on Kevin's house before Harry yells at him to do it immediately, and in the second film when he fell down a floor without looking at where he was going.
5. Just like the titular trio from Ed, Edd n Eddy, they are truly gods of durability in terms of surviving things no burglar would survive from. As such, their slapstick antics pay an evident homage to The Three Stooges.
6. They are a very funny comic-relief duo of villains and contribute to some of the funniest moments in both films, such as the first film when they trip over a bunch of toy cars, Marv shrieking like a girl over Kevin placing Buzz's spider Axl on Marv's nose (a heavily iconic scene when it comes to comedy, all thanks to Daniel Stern's hilarious yell), Harry's head being lit on fire, and even in the second film when Harry and Marv fell from a rope that was lit on fire.
   • They have provided the most timeless scenes because of their buffoonery. Examples of these include in the second movie, with scenes like when Marv was thinking about fish when Harry was asking him about the best parts with committing theft, and Harry climbing up a broken ladder before falling when Marv tried warning him this.
   • Not to mention that they have the most memorable and funniest one-liners throughout both movies. Examples of these include, "Yeah but remember, we're the Wet Bandits! Wet Bandits!! Shut up, *kicks Marv* shut up Marv!!" and "Suck brick kid!".
7. Joe Pesci (Harry) and Daniel Stern (Marv) both do an excellent job portraying them, giving them a very comedic and humorous tone in their villainous personalities that make them a joy to watch.
8. While they both are two comically inept crooks and are ultimately fallible, but they do have their moments of imposing a credible threat towards Kevin in both films, especially in the second film, this scene in particular having Harry being presented in a mostly threatening way.

Bad Qualities

1. In the second film, they become more of a punching bag than ever before, especially when it came to Kevin's over-the-top plans of trickery to outsmart them and the Pigeon Lady torturing them with birdseed at the end right before they get arrested, considering that they're just dumb burglars who don't do much besides theft, attempted murder, and stalking, it makes you sympathize too much for them.
   • Marv also becomes a lot dumber and more of a incompetent goofball than he already was in the first film, although this is somewhat understandable from all of those head injuries that he sustained in the first film (and/or additional head injuries that he might have sustained in jail). The scene where he was gets four bricks thrown at his head by Kevin, also makes this understandable.
   • Marv also receives the worst of the slapstick violence than Harry ever had, even more so than he did in the first film, such as Kevin throwing bricks on him and getting himself electrocuted by a shock machine trick that Kevin bedeviled Marv with.
   • Much like Sylvester from Looney Tunes, their rivalry with Kevin can be quite repetitive and predictable in the second film, to the point they're treated as bumbling saturday morning style villains.
   • Just like Wile E. Coyote, the constant running gag of their sheer ineptitude at their rivalry with Kevin (or embarrassing themselves in general by falling for Kevin's hoaxes), can get a bit stale in the second film since we already know how extremely incompetent they typically are.
2. French Stewart does a weak job portraying Marv in Home Alone 4, though poor writing is partly to blame for this.

Trivia

• Many doctors and nurses in their reactions to both movies (such as the doctors featured in DistractifyYT) had pointed out how painful and how much treatment these two would've been actually had in real-life aside from their durability.
  • This video showcases how insanely durable they are, even for live-action standards.
• The clownish, cartoonish yet impactful slapstick that they were inflicted onto in Home Alone 1 was so memorable, many YouTubers such as Corridor Crew, Fame Focus, and Vsauce3 actually tested how realistic the injuries would've been like on professionally made dummies and other supplies. This video is a prime example out of the many.
• Marv returns in Home Alone 4 and is portrayed by French Stewart and Harry's name was only mentioned.
  • Daniel Stern was initially considered to reprise his role, though he declined after seeing the script thinking it was an insult to the original movies.
• In December 2015, Daniel Stern posted a video on his Facebook and YouTube channel in which he reprised his role as an older Marv. This video is a response to the first episode of the web series :DRYVRS, which featured Macaulay Culkin reprising his role as an adult Kevin.

Comments

Loading comments...