My favorite era of Hitchcock’s film is his 50’s run from Rear Window through to North by Northwest.  There are some outliers in that period, the time in which his associated with television began with Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The sensibilities of television inform one of the most distinctive entries in his oeuvre, 1955’s The Trouble with Harry.  What is so odd about this picture is predominately a comedy, even more than the director’s earlier Mr. &  Mrs. Smith, which was ostensibly a comedy.

Admittedly, this is a black comedy, with a few characters in the orbit of the improbably named Harry Worp, whom we will only see after he is dead.  This corpse is dressed like that of a city slicker, yet his final resting place is somehow in the woods of New England.

His resting place won’t be quite so restful, as there is a surprisingly high volume of foot traffic for such an isolated spot. I guess nothing is more likely to draw unsuspecting people to such a locale like a dead body.  At one point, Edmund Gwenn remarks he should have sold tickets.  The first to find the body is Jerry Mathers (later to go on to great fame with Leave It to Beaver) as a little kid with a goofy space gun toy, which he thinks might have accidentally killed this stranger.

He definitely didn’t kill Harry, but then neither did Gwenn, who had been hunting a rabbit, and who thinks one of his bullets did him in.  Another person who didn’t off him is spinster Mildred Natwick, but she thinks she did after Harry attacked her, thinking she was his wife.  That is no less weird in the context of the film, nor is Natwick’s complicity when helping Gwenn hide the body. 

I won’t give away exactly what brought about the title character’s untimely demise, but it also wasn’t getting hit by a milk bottle wielded by Shirley MacLaine, playing his wife.  She’s also the mother of Mathers (try saying that five times fast), but Harry is not the father of the lad. 

The circumstances of that, and especially why MacLaine so dislikes her most recent husband, is vaguely defined as to lead me to conclude this was the only way this material could be approved by the censors.  And yet, there are some eyebrow-raising lines which I’m very surprised passed muster, most of these Gwenn’s retired sea captain wooing Natwick.  John Forsythe asks Gwenn if he realizes he’s going to be the first man to cross her threshold, and the captain replies Natwick is “A very well-preserved woman, and preserves have to be opened one day.”

Gwenn and Forsythe appeared to not be previously known to each other prior to the events in this movie, but bond over Gwenn’s fear he may have killed Harry when he was hunting a rabbit earlier.  Forsythe is a struggling artist, who does a pastel sketch of the dead man’s face after stumbling upon the corpse.  It is odd how unconcerned he is about finding a dead stranger in the woods.

There’s even more people who stumble upon the body.  There’s a tramp (Barry Macollum) who steals the dead man’s shoes.  There’s also Dwight Marfield as an absent-minded doctor who wanders through the countryside while reading or reciting poetry.  It will take three encounters before it registers he has found a corpse.  That is also as many times as Harry is interred and excavated from the ground.

One of the reasons for the repeated burying and unburying is the investigation undertaken by the sheriff played by Royal Dano.  The final act will be an extensive subterfuge where the main cast all try to hide Harry in MacLaine’s house.  I’m pretty sure our protagonists go through more trouble than is truly necessary, as he is a rather dim bulb.  The man definitely does not command any respect, such as this early did from Forsythe: “Doing a little peace work?  If there’s anything I can do to make it harder for you, let me know.”

I like the small ensemble cast, and there is decent rapport between all the characters.  MacLaine is solid in what was her screen debut.  Mathers is shockingly good for how young he was at the time. 

But the few speaking roles in The Trouble with Harry had me surprised this wasn’t adapted from a stage play.  This a very stagey production, though a lively one, fortunately.  It is funny, though not as much as I think it will be each time I see it.  What I most appreciate is the tone Hitchcock applies to the material, making this a black comedy without it being a cruel one.  Those who can enjoy a film like Arsenic and Old Lace will find much to enjoy here.

Dir: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Edmund Gwenn, Mildred Natwick

Watched on the Universal UK blu-ray box set Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection