Semiquincecentennial Movie Project #14: The Trouble with Harry

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

Week #14: Vermont -

 

The state of Vermont was established on March 4, 1791

Details about Vermont:

State bird: hermit thrush

State flower: red clover

State tree: sugar maple

Additional historical trivia:

Vermont is the home of the hippie's favorite ice cream, Ben & Jerry's.

The first postage stamp in the US was printed in Brattleboro.

The state was the last holdout to allow the Evil Empire (Wal-Mart) to open up a store in it's boundaries. They didn't get one until 1996...

There are more covered bridges in Vermont than any other state. Only about 8.000 people. But even the most populous city only has about 50,000 residents.

Vermont was the first state to outlaw slavery.

You won't find billboards in Vermont. It was the first state to outlaw them. 

Montpelier, the capital of Vermont, is the least populated capital city in the Union. 

Famous people born in Vermont: Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur (US Presidents), John Deere, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (founders of the Mormon church), and Bill Wilson (founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and, yes, I included him because I am a member of the recovery group...).

 

The Trouble with Harry (1955): 

The Trouble with Harry was a rarity in the oeuvre of Alfred Hitchcock, in that it was more of a comedy than a thriller. And the film is populated with some of the most oddball characters you'll see this side of Arsenic and Old Lace. 

The production of the film had as much oddball quirks as the characters in the movie itself. For one thing, when the production company showed up in Vermont to start shooting the film, they were expecting the trees to still be sporting the fall colors of just beginning to hibernate foliage. But the trees were almost bare of leaves... So the solution? Why, they glued leaves to the trees, of course... (As ridiculous as it sounds, they didn't do all that bad a job of it...)

The production team was also plagued with torrential rain. Some of the scenes actually had to be filmed in a rented gym. And the rain played hell with the production there, too. There was some extensive redubbing because the rain interfered with the sound. And, on top of that, a camera fell from the ceiling and almost hit Hitchcock. The good thing about all that rain; even though there was some local flooding, which was bad, the revenue from the film was donated to locals who had been affected by the flooding.

The Trouble with Harry had some fairly big names associated with it. It was the first movie that Shirley MacLaine was ever cast. It was also an early screen premiere for Jerry Mathers, who just a few years later would be cast for the lead in the TV series Leave it to Beaver. Also appearing in the film were Edmund Gwenn (Kris Kringle in the classic Miracle on 34th Street), John Forsythe (probably most well-remembered as the voice of "Charlie" on the TV series Charlie's Angels or Blake Carrington on Dynasty), two-time Oscar winner Mildred Dunnock (Death of a Salesman and Baby Doll) and Royal Dano (a familiar face to many people, like my sister, who watched those old TV westerns.)

The movie opens with young Arnie Rogers (Jerry Mathers) hiking through the woods with his toy gun when he stumbles upon a body. The body is that of Harry Worp (the body was played by Philip Truex, whose father. Ernest Truex, appeared in two classic Twilight Zone episodes). 

Arnie runs off to tell his mom of his discovery, but in the meantime, Captain Wiles (Edmund Gwenn) comes across the body. He thinks that Harry is the victim of an accident, having been shot by Wiles while he was out hunting rabbits.

Wiles has plans to hide the body, but he is discovered by Miss Gravely (Mildred Natwick). Miss Gravely is not entirely in shock, as you might expect. Instead she agrees to keep the body a secret, provided that the captain drops by her house for a social engagement. But when the captain tries to continue his plan to hide the body he runs into problems. The woods seem to be populated as much as the local town. Everybody and their mother stumbles upon the body (while the captain hides and mutters that he might as well have sold tickets to view the body.

Everyone who stumbles upon the body is likewise as unperturbed as Miss Gravely. It turns out that several people know who Harry is, and that they themselves are complicit in the death of the poor man.  This is the black comedy part of the film. (Yes, it's a black comedy. What other kind of comedy could we expect from the master of the macabre...?) 

Among those who drop in on the corpse are a tramp (Barry Macollum) who steals the corpse's shoes,

and Jennifer Rogers (Shirley MacLaine), Arnie's mom, who, instead of shock, exhibits what amounts to relief. 

Harry, you see, was her estranged husband and she had hit him with  milk bottle earlier and thinks that is probably what killed him.  And Miss Gravely? She is not so innocent as she appears. She, too, thinks that she was implicit in the death of Harry. It seems the only person in town that does not think her or she was involved in Harry's death is little Arnie.

Meanwhile, back in town, we meet a few more of the screwy residents. Mrs. Wiggs (Mildred Dunnock), who runs a local dry goods store and is the local postmaster to boot, confers with local artist, Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe). 

Sam has commissioned her to sell some of his paintings, but she hasn't had much success. It seems tourists don't stop by as often as would be useful. (I'm not entirely sure if there EVER ARE any tourists dropping by, but be that as it may...) Local sheriff Calvin Wiggs (Royal Dano) comes on the scene asking about some shooting he heard. The sheriff had previously posted a "No shooting" ordinance and wants to know who was doing some shooting. The sheriff, by the way, is the son of the postmaster/dry goods store owner.

Of course, into the scene comes a potential customer for the decidedly odd paintings, but he may have a bit of trouble in succeeding in his quest since it seems everyone else is preoccupied with other small town events. Later, when Sam goes out into the woods to do a little drawing he too stumbles across the body, as well as the captain who is still fretting over his supposed complicity in the exit of Harry. Sam agrees to help the captain bury the body.  And unbury it... And bury it again... And unbury it... And bury it again... This part of the film is ne of the funnier parts of the film as they try to decide what to do about Harry.

In the meantime a relationship between Sam and Jennifer develops. And, as can usual happen in such a comedy of errors, Sam wants to marry Jennifer. But she is still married to Harry.  And if it can't be proven that Harry is dead, they would have to wait until the requisite 7 years for Harry to be declared officially missing... So now Harry is going to have to be "found" by the officials and declared dead, if they don't want to wait it out.

The Trouble with Harry was not particularly well received by the critics.  Bosley Crowther, a critic for The New York Times wrote that it is not a particularly witty or clever script" and that Hitchcock's direction did not "make it spin". But he did compliment the way the cast was able to pull it off with some panache in the form of it's comedy. Another critic, John McCarten for The New Yorker, claimed that "Alfred Hitchcock, whose work has been going steadily downhill ever since he arrived in Hollywood, skids to preposterous depths."

It was not a big hit at the box office either, although it did manage to bring in a profit; $3 million in sales against a budget of $1 million. Despite that, Rotten Tomatoes ranks it as 88% Fresh. And, really, if you have an open enough mind to accept Hitchcock as a comedic director, it's pretty good. Note "laugh out loud" funny, like, say Blazing Saddles, or, if you want to go the black comedy route, Arsenic and Old Lace, but I did find myself snickering on several occasions. Peopled as it is with such oddball characters, it carried itself well.

Black comedy is, by nature, not for everyone. If you have trouble accepting a dead body as a source of comedy, then I suggest you leave this one alone. But if you are like me, and appreciate a jaunt into the outré, then by al means, set up the DVD player. Maybe even make it a double feature with the aforementioned Arsenic and Old Lace...

Until, next time, drive safely, folks.

Quiggy