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The Trouble With Harry
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by Universal Studios
Sales Rank: 32843
Price: $19.98
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I actually saw this movie when it first came out but all I remembered was that there was this really talented, sort of off-beat young actress in it whom I thought would go far (Shirley MacLaine!), an "older guy" (John Forsythe) beautiful autumn colors and something about a lot of digging. I couldn't remember the title and I don't think I identified it with Hitchcock. Over the years I would occasionally think of the film and wonder what is was. So, it was with great delight that I found it again recently, on the library shelf and I was very happy that I enjoyed it as much this time as the first! <br /> <br />Yes, it is Hitchcock but in a totally different mode than the dark suspenseful ones he's associated with. I found the whole film delightful to re-see and enjoyed every moment. The Hitchcock humor is there, although I certainly would not call it "dark" as others have. Yes, MacLaine was fresh and full of charm, as I had recalled. (She did go far!) John Forsythe did seem a bit old for her and not quite as wonderful as the rest of the cast, but he held his own. Edmund Gwynn is totally adorable, sort of a Hitchcock clone, with his fat belly and sweet disposition. Mildred Natwick is perfect, too, as the spinster with her eye on Gwynn. <br /> <br />The Vermont countryside at the height of its Autumn show plays a major part in the film, (even though they had to leave and film half of it back in California.) The golden light and spectacular colors as well as the immaculate white frame houses give a lightheartedness to the movie that adds an important dimension to the tale. It's the justaposition of the sweetnes and lightness of the village scene with the terrible tragedy of finding a dead body in the woods that one might have killed that gives the film its peculiar humor. It is taken from an English novel and I think it almost might have been better if it had not been transposed to America. However Hitchcock a transplanted Brit, himself, pulls it off. <br /> <br />I think The Trouble with Harry is totally charming and should be considered on a par with many of Hitchcock's more highly rated films.
Viewer Reviews
I never thought it fair that this 1955 black comedy was labeled "lesser Hitchcock". Granted it is "atypical Hitchcock" given its light touch and lack of threatening violence (save for three gunshots heard at the beginning), but master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock has made other movies far more out of his oeuvre like the sparkling 1941 Carole Lombard-Robert Montgomery romantic comedy, Mr. & Mrs. Smith. At least this one hews closer to his macabre sense of humor as it revolves around what to do with a persistent corpse, the body of Harry Worp. First, a freckle-faced little boy named Arnie comes upon it, and then the rabbit-hunting Captain Wiles discovers it and thinks he carelessly shot Harry. The aptly named Miss Gravely, a homely spinster, sees Wiles drag the body and simply invites him for tea with romantic aspirations on her mind. She confesses she thinks she killed Harry with the heel of a hiking boot. Arnie's mother Jennifer Rogers sees the body, and the young widow twice over also recognizes Harry and also thinks he killed him but with a bottle.
Caught in the middle is eccentric artist Sam Marlowe, who nonchalantly helps his friends dispose of the body. Just how Harry died is the MacGuffin around which Hitchcock hinges his entire plot. With a perceptive screenplay by John Michael Hayes (Rear Window) based on a popular post-WWII British novel by Jack Trevor Story, the quaintly whimsical tone is what surprises most Hitchcock aficionados here, but the dialogue is also laced with not-so-subtle sexual innuendo. The combination proves effective on its own terms though not particularly transcendent as a memorable piece of filmmaking. The charming performances help considerably starting with John Forsythe, long before his Aaron Spelling years on Charlie's Angels and Dynasty, as Sam. He has definite chemistry with twenty-year-old Shirley MacLaine in her film debut. As Jennifer, she emerges with her gamine screen persona almost fully formed, and it's no wonder she continues to work in front of the camera over a half-century later.
Edmund Gwenn (memorable as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street) and Mildred Natwick play Wiles and Miss Gravely with pixilated cunning. That is indeed six-year-old Jerry Mathers as Arnie a couple of years before starting his six-year run on Leave It to Beaver. A couple of behind-the-scenes aspects are worth noting - Robert Burks' superb cinematography capturing the colorful autumnal glory of New England and Bernard Herrmann's rhythmic soundtrack, his first of several classic scores for Hitchcock. Presenting a pristine print of the film, the 2006 DVD provides one other significant extra, an original half-hour documentary, Laurent Bouzereau's "The Trouble With Harry Isn't Over", featuring interviews with Forsythe, Hayes, associate producer Herbert Coleman, and Hitchcock's daughter Pat Hitchcock O'Connell. It's an insightful piece about the production complications and idiosyncratic casting like the producers taking a chance on MacLaine. Along with the original theatrical trailer, there is also a 38-still production gallery as well as about five pages of production notes.
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