- In a normal film, a dead body would only need to be discovered once. In The Trouble With Harry, the eponymous character's corpse is found no fewer than eight times! The first discovery is made by a strange little boy named Arnie (Jerry Mathers), who dutifully alerts his equally odd mother, Miss Rogers (Shirley MacLaine). The remains of Harry are next encountered by the kindly Captain Wiles (Edmund Gwenn), who naturally assumes that he shot the man accidentally while hunting rabbits. As Wiles maintains a vigil near the body, nearly everyone else in town manages to stumble upon Harry, in some cases literally. The repressed Miss Gravely (Mildred Natwick) assumes that she too was responsible for Harry's death, having hit him on the head with her shoe. The eccentric artist Mr. Marlowe (John Forsythe), on the other hand, casually sits down to draw Harry. The most surprising reaction may be that of Miss Rogers, however, who seems happy that Harry is dead, even though he was her husband. "Couldn't have had more people here if I'd sold tickets," mutters Wiles.
- Now that nearly everybody except the town sheriff (Royal Dano) knows that Harry is dead, the trouble becomes what to do with him. Wiles and Marlowe initially decide to bury him "with hasty reverence," but he isn't in the ground for five minutes before they're digging him up again for further examination. This process repeats itself when Miss Gravely admits to Captain Wiles that she may have been the one who killed Harry. By the film's end, Harry has been buried and exhumed a total of three times (and hidden in a bathtub once) before we finally discover that Harry's permanent trouble can be attributed entirely to natural causes. Good thing, too, because Captain Wiles looks absolutely exhausted from watching other people dig graves all day.
- Although the subject matter of The Trouble With Harry is quintessentially Hitchcockian, the film marks an odd departure in tone for the director. It is one of his few pure black comedies and, in my opinion, clearly illustrates why he was better off sticking with suspense. Most of his other films contain some macabre humor, but it is always ancillary to the tension that keeps the audience engaged. The only suspense in this film is relegated to a short sequence near the end when we think Harry's body is hidden in a self-opening closet. The rest of the film is carried by its strange characters, some of whom are amusing, and its dialogue, some of which is clever. It's enough to keep the film from being unpleasant, but not enough to make it as engrossing as most of his other work.
- I spotted Hitchcock walking outside near where the paintings were on display.
- This was Shirley MacLaine's first film.
- I wondered for the entire film why I recognized John Forsythe's voice. He's Charlie from Charlie's Angels, of course.
- This was Bernard Herrmann's first collaboration with Hitchcock.
