The Trouble with Harry [Blu-ray]

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock

Overview

The trouble with Harry is that he's dead. The scene is a autumnal Vermont village, where a pre-Leave It to Beaver Jerry Mathers stumbles upon Harry's corpse in the woods. Mathers alerts his mother Shirley MacLaine (making her film debut), who recognizes Harry as her ex-husband. Later on, retired sea captain Edmund Gwenn likewise comes across the moribund Harry. Both MacLaine and Gwenn have reason to believe that they're responsible for Harry's demise; MacLaine thinks that she killed Harry by clobbering him with a bottle, while Gwenn is certain that he shot the poor fellow while hunting. As the day draws to a close, seemingly every person in town is convinced that he or she has had some hand in Harry's death, thus they conspire to hide the body from the authorities. Visiting artist John Forsythe, dumbfounded at the calm, collected reactions of the villagers regarding Harry (whose ubiquitous body pops up at the most inopportune moments), solves the "mystery." Though not his most successful film, The Trouble with Harry was one of director Alfred Hitchcock's favorites. The story's whimsical black-comedy elements are perfectly complemented by Bernard Herrmann's playful music score. Best bit: Mildred Natwick, coming upon Gwenn as the latter is strenuously dragging away Harry's corpse, asking offhandedly "What seems to be the trouble, Captain?" The Trouble With Harry was adapted by John Michael Hayes from the novel by John Trevor.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/01/2013
UPC:	0025192176463
Original Release:	1955
Rating:	PG
Source:	STUDIO DISTRIBUTION SERVS LLC
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	1:40:00
Sales rank:	24,711

Special Features

The Trouble With Harry isn't over; Production photographs; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Edmund Gwenn	Capt. Albert Wiles
John Forsythe	Sam Marlowe, the painter
Shirley MacLaine	Jennifer Rogers, Harry's Wife
Mildred Natwick	Miss Graveley
Mildred Dunnock	Mrs. Wiggs
Jerry Mathers	Arnie Rogers, Harry's Son
Royal Dano	Calvin Wiggs
Parker Fennelly	Millionaire
Barry Macollum	Tramp
Dwight Marfield	Dr. Greenbow
Leslie Woolf	Art Critic
Philip Truex	Harry Worp
Ernest Curt Bach	Chauffeur
Bernard Herrmann	Composer

Technical Credits

John Michael Hayes

Alfred Hitchcock	Director,Producer
John Michael Hayes	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
John P. Fulton	Special Effects
Harold Lewis	Sound/Sound Designer
Winston H. Leverett	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Death can be funny, as Alfred Hitchcock demonstrates in this black comedy about a corpse that just won’t stay buried. Overshadowed by masterpieces that the director made during the same period, such as Rear Window and Vertigo, this offbeat satire reveals a gentler and more whimsical side of Hitchcock. In a delicious twist on the conventional murder mystery, several of the characters involved, rather than proclaiming their innocence, remain convinced that they are responsible for the death of the eponymous Harry. Shirley MacLaine makes a charming screen debut here as the dead man’s ex-wife, while Edmund Gwenn (who had appeared in Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent and Skin Game) does a nice turn as the old sea dog who happens upon the hapless stiff while hunting. The Trouble with Harry is also notable for being the first film in Hitchcock’s long and fruitful collaboration with composer Bernard Hermann, who provided the marvelous score.

Barnes & Noble - Kryssa Schemmerling

Alfred Hitchcock rarely allowed his dry and barbed sense of humor to rise to the surface as fully as in The Trouble With Harry, one of his only real comedies, and a film that he often cited as a personal favorite. Like a Charles Addams or Gahan Wilson cartoon come to life, The Trouble With Harry finds its characters amusingly unconcerned with the fact that Harry is dead, and his remains -- repeatedly dug up, dragged about, and reburied -- are shown a casual disrespect that is both funny and jarring. Hitchcock had a fondness for eccentric comic-relief characters, and here he gave them a film to themselves; Edmund Gwenn, Mildred Dunnock, and Mildred Natwick are all in fine form. While it requires a certain suspension of disbelief to accept John Forsythe as a bohemian artist, Shirley MacLaine was an inspired choice, in her first screen role, as his love interest, displaying a sharp, pixie-ish charm that was a welcome alternative to the high-gloss glamour gals of the period (and Hitchcock's usual ice-queen heroines). The Trouble With Harry is not one of Hitchcock's best films, but the Master was clearly enjoying himself, and anyone who appreciated the eccentricity of Thelma Ritter in Rear Window or Leo G. Carroll in North by Northwest will have a lot of fun with this movie.

All Movie Guide - Mark Deming

Alfred Hitchcock rarely allowed his dry and barbed sense of humor to rise to the surface as fully as in The Trouble With Harry, one of his only real comedies, and a film that he often cited as a personal favorite. Like a Charles Addams or Gahan Wilson cartoon come to life, The Trouble With Harry finds its characters amusingly unconcerned with the fact that Harry is dead, and his remains repeatedly dug up, dragged about, and reburied are shown a casual disrespect that is both funny and jarring. Hitchcock had a fondness for eccentric comic-relief characters, and here he gave them a film to themselves; Edmund Gwenn, Mildred Dunnock, and Mildred Natwick are all in fine form. While it requires a certain suspension of disbelief to accept John Forsythe as a bohemian artist, Shirley MacLaine was an inspired choice, in her first screen role, as his love interest, displaying a sharp, pixie-ish charm that was a welcome alternative to the high-gloss glamour gals of the period (and Hitchcock's usual ice-queen heroines). The Trouble With Harry is not one of Hitchcock's best films, but the Master was clearly enjoying himself, and anyone who appreciated the eccentricity of Thelma Ritter in Rear Window or Leo G. Carroll in North by Northwest will have a lot of fun with this movie. -- Mark Deming

All Movie Guide