You’ll Dig Harry

I’ll let you in on a little secret. . . The Trouble With Harry is, well, he’s dead. Alfred Hitchcock directs this cheeky black comedy about a number of villagers who discover the body of a deceased man out in the woods in picturesque New England.

Though it was an American film, Hitchcock adapts a very British story (after all, it is usually Europeans who can find comedy in death) for the screen. A project he desperately wanted to get made, it finally came to fruition in 1955.

The first to stumble upon the body is a little scamp of a child named Arnie Rogers (Jerry Mathers of Leave It to Beaver fame). Toting a fake gun, the boy crawls, hides, and meanders until he makes his way to the dead body. He runs to get his mother, after which the elderly Capt. Albert Wiles (Edmund Gwenn – Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34^th Street) discovers the corpse, only to think he must have shot him while he was hunting for rabbit.

The jovial old man struggles to comprehend the situation. By the time he decides that he should probably dispose of the body, the secluded place attracts an odd number of individuals. First along is Miss Ivy Gravely (Mildred Natwick), who seems unsurprised by walking into such an unusual situation. She kicks the body and then decides to set up a date with the single Captain. The little boy then returns with his mother Jennifer (Shirley MacLaine – in her first screen appearance), who seems happy to find the man dead. A hobo then arrives, stealing the striking tan shoes off of the remains. Another man to join the carousel is the oblivious local doctor, Greenbow (Dwight Marfield), who trips over the body, yet does not even realize it as he is so engrossed in the book he is reading.

Liberal, open-minded artist Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe) gets caught up in the caper, not wanting any of his neighbours to be arrested for the seemingly fluke incident. He aids the Captain (after hearing of all the individuals who witnessed the corpse), which leads him to the house of Jennifer Rogers, where he interviews the woman for information all while falling for her striking looks and casual demeanour. Marlowe consigns his art with Mrs. Wiggs (Mildred Dunnock), who owns the town’s general store and whose son just happens to be the Deputy Sheriff (Royal Dano) – who earns his wage according to the number of arrests he makes.

Love, romance and mystery thrive as different members of the group bury and then unearth the corpse (several times) – as countless issues arise that force them to do the job of a gravedigger. . . all while hiding their highly suspicious actions from the snooping Deputy Sheriff.

Marlowe even sells his art to a haughty millionaire (Parker Fennelly), but even this brings the unassuming group of quasi-criminals closer to being discovered.

The Trouble With Harry is a fun little romp that would be the type of thing that usually comes out of England. Movies like Death at a Funeral, Keeping Mum, Four Weddings and a Funeral and other such offerings find the lighter side of death. Using the dead body as a MacGuffin, Hitchcock delights in having his characters flourish around doing some unorthodox extra-curricular activities. I also saw a bit of a likeness to one of Hitch’s final flicks: 1972’s Frenzy. The humour that came out of the lunch between the Captain and Miss Ivy reminded me of a similar scene in the later movie (the final film he made in Britain), with him also finding comedy surrounding dead bodies.

With much of it being shot in striking Vermont, the fall foliage is absolutely breathtaking. After a storm knocked down much of the leafage, Hitchcock ordered his crew to pack up the fallen leaves, paint them and reattach them to fake trees so that they could finish filming the scenes where the body is located – talk about coming up with a creative solution.

It is also famous for being the first time Hitchcock and legendary composer Bernard Herrmann worked together (which led to a number of further outstanding collaborations, some of which include Vertigo, Psycho and North By Northwest). Herrmann is on form here, as he is able to mash the jovial characters with the macabre aspect of the dead body. It has ominous horns melded with a jumpy theme that is both mysterious and playfully comedic. Hitchcock called it his favourite score from his films and Herrmann reworked some of the musical elements to create an arrangement titled “A Portrait of Hitch”.

Though not one of his more iconic or well known works (it struggled in the United States upon its release, but thrived for more than a year in Europe), The Trouble With Harry is a fun film that shows the lighter side of the legendary thriller director (though he often used comedy in his motion pictures, this one would most likely be called a romantic comedy with a grizzly twist). So, there’s no trouble in watching this unusual movie, I think you’ll dig it.