Written by John Michael Hayes, based on the novel by Jack Trevor Story
Starring John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Edmund Gwenn and Mildred Natwick
The trouble with Harry is that he's dead, and everyone seems to have a different idea of what needs to be done with his body.
In this rare, dark comedy from the incomparable Alfred Hitchcock, murder is not the punchline, but rather the set up to many ludicrous situations. In 1950s Vermont, the citizens of this small town seem to be more concerned with being proper and polite than they do with a dead body. Perhaps a satire of the unachievable expectations of manners in the 50s. But I was born in 1989, so what the hell do I know?
The film itself isn't filled with jokes or slapstick situations. It is the sheer macabre nature of this story that makes it's own humor. Hitchcock's dark sense of comedy is so apparent that I could just imagine him sitting bend the camera, grinning from ear to ear.
The age of this movie will turn many away and as much as I urge people to give this and any other classic movie a shot, I understand completely. Older films are not always for everyone due to the way films have changed overtime. The evolution of humor alone has created such a gap in what people of different generations find funny.
"The Trouble With Harry" is dry, dark and ridiculous. If anything, I would say that you will most likely never see another film quite like it. It speaks about death so nonchalantly that it's no surprise that the writer of the novel and the director were both British. So painfully British.
My Rating: 7/10
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