Trouble With Harry (1955)

Trouble With Harry is one of the less spoken of Hitchcock films and that's probably because not so many people went to see it. The reason being, that Hitch stepped away from his normal format of film making. When the world was used to the dark, serious films of Alfred Hitchcock, the daring director chose to do a comedy... A very dark comedy but still a comedy.

One year earlier he would scare the world with a genius masterpiece shot almost entirely from the prospective of a man peering out of The Rear Window. This time around we fallow a corpse that is basically being dragged around the woods for one hundred minutes.

Edmund Gwenn (Miracle On 34th Street, Them) is the first to find the body of Harry. Naturally he thinks he killed poor Harry when he sees the hole in his forehead. After all he was recklessly shooting his rifle off in the woods. Naturally he decides to bury the body before he is caught. The only problem is the woods are very crowded on this particular day. Harry's wife and stepson find him sitting there but they seem almost happy. A bum steals the shoes off of Harry's dead feet. Another man trips over the body and many others cross Harry's path and the best part is that every one of them have their own reason for wanting to keep it a secret.

Shirley Maclaine shows up as Harry's wife and the films sex appeal and in a very odd moment one of her breasts are wet. Being lucky enough to catch this on the big screen great details of such pops out at you and I'm not sure if she was lactating during this film but Hitchcock being the perfectionist that he is usually doesn't allow for continuity. Look for it in the films final reel but aside from the milk leakage, there is quite a bit of sexual tension being built within this film. One of the best examples is in a piece of dialogue referencing the taking of virginity. Pretty risky stuff for 1955...

Trouble With Harry has a nice mix of laughs and mystery. Hitchcock fans shouldn't be disappointed. The man proves his talent yet again on a less traveled path.