Online Encyclopedia
Harriet the Spy
Harriet the Spy is a novel for children by Louise Fitzhugh, published in 1974.
It was later made into a film by Nickelodeon starring Michelle Trachtenberg.
The Movie
Harriet the Spy is a movie about Harriet Welsch, an eleven-year-old girl aspiring to be a spy. She has a notebook and snoops around her neighbourhood. Her best friends are Janie and Sport. Janie is big on science, and Sport is a very mature boy as his father is a starving artist of a writer. Marion Hawthorne, the rich, popular girl in class is also somewhat of a bully. One afternoon, when the children play in a park afterschool, Marion and her clique snag Harriet’s notebook and read all her secret thoughts to everyone. What’s written in the book is hurtful for all of Harriet’s friends. They ostracize her and tease her from this point, and Harriet retreats into anger and gains revenge on them. Harriet also has a nanny Golly, who gets fired in the course of the movie. Utterly lonely, Harriet becomes high on tantrums; her parents confiscate her notebook and start making her see a psychologist. One day Harriet runs into Golly and Golly gives her some advice. Harriet aspires to become the writer of the class newspaper, and she does. She makes amends to her former friends through her writing, and all is well again.
Credits
Directed by:
Bronwen Hughes
Writing credits: (WGA)
Louise Fitzhugh (novel)
Greg Taylor (adaptation) and
Julie Talen (adaptation)
Douglas Petrie (screenplay) and
Theresa Rebeck (screenplay)
Cast: Michelle Trachtenberg ....Harriet M. Welsch
Gregory Smith ....Sport
Vanessa Lee Chester ....Janie Gibbs
Rosie O'Donnell ....Ole Golly
J. Smith-Cameron ....Mrs. Welsch
Robert Joy ....Mr. Welsch
Charlotte Sullivan ....Marion Hawthorne
Produced by:
Debby Beece .... executive producer
Nava Levin .... co-producer
Julia Pistor .... associate producer
Marykay Powell .... producer
Cinematography by:
Francis Kenny