The Trouble With Harry

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (PG)

D: Alfred Hitchcock

Paramount (Alfred Hitchcock)

US 1955

99 mins

Comedy/Mystery/Thriller

W: John Michael Hayes [based on the novel by Jack Trevor Story]

DP: Robert Burks

Ed: Alma McCrorie

Mus: Bernard Herrmann

Edmund Gwenn (Capt. Albert Wiles), John Forsythe (Sam Marlowe), Shirley MacLaine (Jennifer Rogers), Mildred Natwick (Ivy Gravely), Mildred Dunnock (Mrs. Wiggs), Jerry Mathers (Arnie Rogers)

Alfred Hitchcock turns his hand to black comedy for this shaggy dog story / murder mystery, a corpse providing the McGuffin as various characters discover it and can't decide between themselves the best course of action concerning the dead body and each of them being potentially responsible for a murder as their secrets unfurl.

A small film for Hitchcock, who used a lesser known cast as an experiment to see if a film could be successful without a big name on the bill (the answer was moderately).

It's a fun film for its age, but it could have been quite awful if it wasn't for the Master Of Suspense at the helm.

6/10