Thursday, October 04, 2012

The Trouble With Harry

 (1955) ***1/2

This film shows us the whimsical side of Hitchcock, a fun twist on a murder mystery. Several people happen on a corpse on a hillside in the woods, trouble is most of them are pretty sure they are the one responsible for his death, none of whom would like to pay the consequences for it. We have Captain Albert Wiles who is certain he shot Harry accidentally while hunting rabbit. Then there is Jennifer Rogers, Harry’s wife, who admittedly clocked him on the head with a milk bottle and Miss Ivy Gravely who also clocked him on the head with her cleat. They conspire to get rid of Harry but in the ever-developing circumstances of his death they have to keep burying and digging him up trying to figure it out. One thing’s for sure, no one is gonna miss him.

A very young Jerry Mathers (The Beaver) was the first to discover Harry

I love a comedy that is wrapped around grim circumstances. Hitchcock is not often thought of as a funnyman but he surly had the chops for it. The pace of the film is perfect and the characters are so matter of fact about this dead guy. It has the same feel as Homebodies, there is just something so fun about old people doing bad things. If you’ve never seen this I recommend giving it a whirl some rainy afternoon when you’ve got nothing better to do then to watch old movies and chomp popcorn.

8 comments:

DKC said...

That picture with the kid looks like some kind of weird forced proportion thing. "my legs are huuuuuuge!"

Catfreeek said...

That picture is gonna end up on my arm before long.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

I love the premise! Never heard of this one before.

Landshark said...

Man, you're hitting the other end of the spectrum now (from that vomit thing). Unfortunately, I have to keep postponing reading your full reviews, as I haven't seen this one or Rope yet, and don't want spoilers.

Catfreeek said...

Hit up Epix landshark they have Hitchcock films on demand but only until tomorrow.

AC said...

glad you've got some lighter ones in the queue, catfreeek! i'm getting traumatized just reading your reviews, and it's only october 4th! :)

Octopunk said...

Of course I'm sure Alfred knew exactly what he was doing with that shot.

I've heard of this, but either I didn't realize it was Hitchcock or I didn't realize it was an actual comedy. So until now I had no idea Hitchcock had done a comedy. What an excellent choice.

You're right! It is fun when old people do bad things!

50PageMcGee said...

freeek, you should find a way to project another bigger arm onto your arm to really meta up the joke.

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