THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (66)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock (1955)

Starring: Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Mildred Natwick

The Pitch: On an autumn day in the Vermont woods, the dead body of Harry Worp causes complications in the lives of four people, three of whom may (or may not) have been responsible for his death. 

Theo Sez: Harry = sex, of course, that awkward subject in polite society - "embarrassing," mutters repressed spinster Natwick, stepping daintily over the corpse - that people are forever trying to bury yet keeps popping back to the surface. Lust runs through the movie like a background hum, regularly erupting in lines like the Captain leering that Miss Graveley is "a well-preserved woman, but preserves have to be opened one day", or Marlowe kicking off his acquaintance with Miss Rogers by observing he'd like to take her clothes off (for a portrait, but whatever) ; no wonder Graveley wants the corpse exhumed after her first taste of sexual excitement, and no wonder its presence is required to make a marriage official, and no wonder the last line can be spoken (rather than whispered) only after Harry has stopped being morally troublesome - and no wonder Hitchcock takes to the subject so well, bringing out the side of his character best expressed in FRENZY, both the queasy correlation between sex and death and twisted sense of black comedy in bodies being manhandled (cf. the nude girl's corpse in a stack of potato sacks in FRENZY). Indeed, maybe he takes to the subject too well, whole thing being so compatible with his proper-English-gent persona he doesn't quite understand that the joke could've used a little juicing up : morbid black comedy's not exactly unusual, from ARSENIC AND OLD LACE to WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S, and the thing's such a shaggy-dog story it doesn't even bother building story-hinges (e.g. the back-story of why Miss Rogers hates Harry, which is just thrown away for an easy laugh) or solid motivations. It's all about the non sequiturs, which are often irresistible - the business with the closet door, or the Captain's outlandish tales of life at sea ("How did he hit a brick wall on board a ship?" "We're still trying to work that out") - and may be why the film is so beloved in certain online quarters (you know who you are) ; might make a good mid-50s double bill with BEAT THE DEVIL, though only one scene is as funny as that film - the awkward courtship over blueberry muffins, beautifully played by Gwenn and Natwick in her first great comic performance of 1955 (see also THE COURT JESTER). Literate wit, schematic structure and self-consciously becalmed style act like a shield against chaos - you get the sense it might all turn very unpleasant if reality were allowed in - making for inner tension but also a stultifying quality, though it does look good (coolest shot : Harry's feet in ECU). "Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they won't be disappointed," notes the Captain ; good advice in my opinion.