'The Trouble With Harry' - Movie Review

One of Hitchcock's most warped movies, this is essentially a romantic comedy where the prime motivator for everyone's actions is Harry's corpse. That's the trouble with him - he's dead, and several people believe they're responsible for his current inanimate state. So to cover up the problem, he's buried - and then to confirm how he died he's dug up, and then buried, and then dug up ... and while this is happening, two couples are falling for each other. It's done as only Hitchcock could manage and it's very, very funny.

Consider the image of the brightly coloured socks of our corpse sticking up on a sunny and colourful fall day in Vermont, with an upbeat score, surrounded by frank and often humorous discussion of what to do with the dead guy. Funny as hell, but not surprisingly a movie that combined romantic comedy, a murder mystery, and macabre and/or black comedy was a flop at the box office in 1955. Apparently it was completely unavailable from about a year after its release until 1984 (when I first saw it in a repetory cinema), but in 2017 (when I re-watched it) it's readily available. If you haven't seen it, you should - it's one of Hitchcock's better efforts and a joy to watch.