Harper is a 1966 film written by William Goldman from a novel by Ross Macdonald. The movie starred Paul Newman as the eponymous Lew Harper (Lew Archer in the novel). The original music score was composed by Johnny Mandel. Goldman received a 1967 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. Shelley Winters played the once-gorgeous former starlet Fay Estabrook, who is now an alcoholic.
The film was released in the UK as The Moving Target, which is the title of the novel. Newman reprised the role in The Drowning Pool, made in 1975.
The film captures elements of the traditional "buddy" film. The film also pays homage to the Humphrey Bogart films by bringing Bogart's wife Lauren Bacall into the story. Bacall plays the role of the wounded and woeful wife, the person most concerned with a missing husband. Her role is similar to the character General Sternwood in the Bogart and Bacall 1946 movie The Big Sleep.