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The Trouble With Harry

Play trailer 0:35 Poster for The Trouble With Harry PG Released Oct 3, 1955 1h 39m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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88% Tomatometer 33 Reviews 73% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
When a local man's corpse appears on a nearby hillside, no one is quite sure what happened to him. Many of the town's residents secretly wonder if they are responsible, including the man's ex-wife, Jennifer (Shirley MacLaine), and Capt. Albert Wiles (Edmund Gwenn), a retired seaman who was hunting in the woods where the body was found. As the no-nonsense sheriff (Royal Dano) gets involved and local artist Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe) offers his help, the community slowly unravels the mystery.
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The Trouble With Harry

Critics Reviews

View All (33) Critics Reviews
Geoff Andrew Time Out Hitchcock is reluctant to follow the subversive premises of the story through to their outrageous logical conclusion. May 5, 2020 Full Review Dave Kehr Chicago Reader Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 comedy has long been overshadowed by the masterworks that surround it, but it's a wonderful, fanciful film, the most optimistic movie he ever made -- a fairy tale among nightmares. May 5, 2020 Full Review Penelope Houston Sight & Sound Assimilating the black humours of the comedie noire into the gentler comedy of village eccentricity, Hitchcock and his scriptwriter, John Michael Hayes, have concocted an entertainment insidious in its charm. Apr 28, 2020 Full Review Michael Calleri Niagara Gazette The film plays out with utterly charming merriment, which is assisted every step of the way by the acting of the sparkling cast. The characters may be naive, but they are adorably beguiling, and the tale bounces to a satisfying conclusion. Jan 8, 2023 Full Review Walter Chaw Film Freak Central In a career littered with experiments that succeed to different degrees, this is one that really worked. Rated: 4/4 Jun 24, 2022 Full Review Francois Truffaut Arts (France) The color is artfully wonderful: fall shades disclose a poetry that offers a mischievous contrast to the gruesome text and action. Apr 4, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Rare T Ratings for The Trouble With Harry are generally brought down by the weight of mild disappointment resulting from higher anticipation for a Hitchcock movie. However, from an objective and unbiased point of view, this could be considered a solid production. The plot, though of a homogeneous nature, is actually unique, containing just the perfect blend of suspense and foolishness, though the latter prevails. Even disregarding all aforementioned elements, Shirley MacLaine’s debuting presence, on a Hitchcock movie no less, should be reason enough to watch, let alone the rest of the cast. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 12/06/24 Full Review To F Es bastante entretenida y tiene ese toque tan puro de comedia. El sarcasmo le da un toque muy especial. Las actuaciones son muy buenas, como si todos se llevaran muy bien, sin malicia y sin odio. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 11/07/24 Full Review helder f This a great movie that revolves around harry, a man who's found dead. It's delightful. I reminds of a children's tale, where adults come together in a sort of a child play. Each character is simple yet complex. The acting is vey senseless. It reminds us of a school theater play. Truly beautiful Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/14/24 Full Review harwee h Entertaining film that also features Shirley MacLaine in her film debut. It is in fact intended and labeled as a comedy, though the "trouble" (Harry the dead body) drives the mystery and works as such to keep viewers interested and building the budding romances along the way. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 12/30/23 Full Review ChrisCSH H The Trouble with Harry is Alfred Hitchcocks take on a whimsical black comedy but unfortunately for me, the film just doesn't work the idea of people dismissing a body in the woods without a care in the world and burying that body and then digging up the body and then re-burying the body over and over again is awfully silly And the film is just Confusing. On the good side of it though the acting from everyone is fantastic. Shirley McClain is great along with all the other actors. the autumn setting for the location is also just amazingly picturesque, but unfortunately, the overall plot is just downright ridiculous, which is unfortunate because a lot of the later works of Alfred Hitchcock are masterpieces, in many ways this film just seems out of place for someone like Alfred Hitchcock and It doesn't really feel like a film he would make. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/18/23 Full Review Shaun E I've had this Hitchcock sat waiting to watch for a long time as part of a Hitchcock DVD box set. Waiting a long time as it looked to silly to be remotely interesting. But it seemed like one to watch on a stormy afternoon. To start, the acting felt really wooden and I was wondering if this was even going to be watchable at all. I felt like I was watching an amateur dramatic performance being put on by the drama group in a small village. The film takes place over a period of just over 24 hours. At first, I thought that there was a lot of fluff and time filler, but this was not the case. Despite the absolutely farcical nature of the plot, as the film developed it was clear that Hitchcock was weaving his magic to bring things together. Yes, the plot is ridiculous, but it genuinely was hilarious and I would imagine at the time it was released it would have been seen. Acting performances never become fantastic, but it is difficult for me to put that down to the era or to capability, but I would say that the performances that they are add to the character of the film. This isn't the film to watch if you are looking for something sophisticated, but there is weirdly a sophistication in the comedic simplicity of the whole. As usual with Hitchcock films, the ending is abrupt and you always feel that the last page of the book is missing, like leaving out the last musical note in a composition. Much better than I had anticipated and an almost lost to memory comedic classic. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/02/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Trouble With Harry

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Movie Info

Synopsis When a local man's corpse appears on a nearby hillside, no one is quite sure what happened to him. Many of the town's residents secretly wonder if they are responsible, including the man's ex-wife, Jennifer (Shirley MacLaine), and Capt. Albert Wiles (Edmund Gwenn), a retired seaman who was hunting in the woods where the body was found. As the no-nonsense sheriff (Royal Dano) gets involved and local artist Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe) offers his help, the community slowly unravels the mystery.
Director
Alfred Hitchcock
Producer
Alfred Hitchcock
Screenwriter
Jack Trevor Story, John Michael Hayes
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
Production Co
Paramount Pictures, Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions
Rating
PG
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 3, 1955, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
May 8, 2015
Runtime
1h 39m
Sound Mix
Mono
Aspect Ratio
35mm
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