Review: The Trouble With Harry

A droll, pleasant comedy about a corpse that won’t stay buried. Shirley MacLaine (in her quite charming, if unpolished debut) is the widow of the deceased, who didn’t much like the dead man anyway (Her excitable kid discovered the corpse, and is played by The Beav himself, Jerry Mathers). Edmund Gwenn is the elderly sea captain who thinks he might’ve accidentally the shot the man while hunting, and buries the corpse, frightened of exposure. He is helped in this task by a struggling artist John Forsythe. Spinster Mildred Natwick, meanwhile thinks it was she who might’ve done the deed (She has a nice little romance with Gwenn, whilst Forsythe cosies up to MacLaine and her kid). Mildred Dunnock is terrific as shop owner Mrs. Wiggs, who agrees to put Forsythe’s paintings on display for potential buyers. Royal Dano turns up as her suspicious son, a somewhat dim lawman.

Pleasurable, but minor league 1955 Alfred Hitchcock (“Strangers on a Train”, “To Catch a Thief”) black comedy was a flop at the box-office, but apparently a personal favourite of the director himself. It boasts some fun performances, notably Gwenn and Forsythe (their conversation about ‘preservatives’ is the funniest thing in this otherwise mild film), and top-notch autumnal cinematography by the great Robert Burks (“Strangers on a Train”, “To Catch a Thief”, “A Patch of Blue”). But Hitch is better than this if you ask me, it’s not really worthy of his talents and rather twee. Still, it’s all rather agreeable and actually improves with each viewing, I’ve found. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes (“To Catch a Thief”, “The Man Who Knew Too Much”, “Peyton Place”, “The Children’s Hour”) was based on the novel by Jack Trevor Story.

 

Rating: C+