# Plays (and movies) where an important character never appears **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [February 2, 2024, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plays-and-movies-where-an-important-character-never-appears/997022 "2024-02-02T12:51:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 96
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2024, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plays-and-movies-where-an-important-character-never-appears/997022/96 "2024-02-03T17:38:15Z")
To those saying Harvey doesn’t appear in the film, I counter with this bit of evidence. [![](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T1/images/I/71sp8gm+PgL._AC_SX679_.jpg) ](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T1/images/I/71sp8gm+PgL._AC_SX679_.jpg) Now, I happen to think letting the audience see this painting is one of the movie’s only missteps, since it makes concrete something that should only exist in each viewer’s imagination. And I don’t know about you, but that’s definitely _not_ how I imagine Harvey. But I think it clearly disqualifies the film _Harvey_ from the OP’s specifications. My contribution to the thread (and I’m surprised that I’m the first to mention him) is Floyd Thursby in _The Maltese Falcon_, both Dashiell Hammet’s book and John Huston’s 1941 film with Humphrey Bogart. Thursby was Brigid O’Shaughnessy’s partner before the story starts, and she sets Spade and Archer after him, claiming he has seduced her (non-existent) sister. Archer starts tailing him and is killed by Thursby. Shortly after that, Thursby is killed, off-camera, by Wilmer Cook. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plays-and-movies-where-an-important-character-never-appears/997022)._