Friday, April 8, 2011

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY: Dig That Crazy Grave!

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 comedy The Trouble with Harry (TTwH) truly lived up to the movie poster’s assessment: “The Unexpected from Hitchcock!” The novel was based on British pulp writer Jack Trevor Story’s 1949 novel, but Hitchcock transplanted the action to a picturesque Vermont hamlet in autumn, full of likable eccentrics who find themselves playing hide-and-seek with titular corpse Harry Worp (the uncredited Philip Truex). Instead of the sleek, sinister suspense that was Hitchcock’s trademark, TTwH is more like an Ealing comedy with a gleefully puckish sense of gallows humor. Vinnie and I have always enjoyed well-played comedy with a slow fuse, so TTwH endeared itself to us right away. No wonder Hitchcock showed TTwH to the writers on his long-running TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents; what better way to show the writers exactly what Hitch wanted from them? Even though TTwH wasn’t a box office hit during its original U.S. theatrical release, it was a smash in France for a record-breaking 18 months, and much like Hitchcock’s 1958 spellbinder Vertigo, TTwH finally has the acclaim it always deserved!
Renowned illustrator Saul Steinberg's slyly funny opening credits sequence sets exactly the right tone. Cute little tyke Arnie Rogers (Jerry Mathers, pre-Leave It to Beaver) is the first to find Harry. The kid’s just minding his own business, dashing around the countryside with his toy space gun and his own scrambled way of telling time, when he hears the sound of gunshots and a man’s angry voice yelling, “Okay, I know how to handle your type!” Soon there’s a *thud,* and before Arnie can say, “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” (no, smarty, not Pennsylvania’s governor!), the lad discovers Harry lying supine in a clearing. I love how Arnie innocently stands over Harry’s corpse in a way that looks like they’re sharing the same body. Nobody points fingers at Arnie (what do you think this is, The Bad Seed?), but many of the townspeople seem to have potentially murderous motives. There’s Captain Wiles (appealingly played by that Oscar-winning Kris Kringle himself, veteran Hitchcock supporting actor Edmund Gwenn), who was out hunting and fears he accidentally bagged Harry instead of wild game. But the game gets plenty wild soon enough, in its own droll, understated yet cheeky way. Could that have been Harry’s angry voice threatening one of the other townsfolk, Miss Gravely (Mildred Natwick, one of Team Bartilucci’s favorite character actresses)? A gentle lady of a certain age, Miss Gravely admits that the then-alive Harry had “annoyed” and attacked her for no apparent reason; did her sensible hiking shoes multitask as murder weapons? If so, Harry’s outburst might have been a case of mistaken identity (after all, this is a Hitchcock movie, “unexpected” or not!). 

I wouldn't want to be in Arnie's shoes -- or Harry's!
Apparently Harry was really looking for Arnie’s pretty young mom, Jennifer Rogers (Shirley MacLaine, making her film debut fresh from the Broadway hit The Pajama Game), who happens to be Harry’s estranged wife. Arnie was the son of Jennifer’s late husband Robert, Harry’s brother. Jennifer had truly loved the late Robert, but Harry, not so much. Still, Harry was all set to marry her just to be noble, so Arnie would be a little dickens and not a little bastard. Alas, Harry ducked out on Jennifer on their wedding night, citing a horoscope warning: “Don’t start any new projects…They could never be finished.” After all that, I don’t blame Jennifer for “knock(ing Harry) silly” with the nearest milk bottle once he finally showed up out of the blue to reboot the loveless marriage. Well, good riddance—any man who’d abandon a sweet dish like Jennifer on account of some silly horoscope prediction doesn’t deserve her, especially considering she’d gone to great pains to show off her nightie to its best advantage! Just as well, since Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe) is developing a case on our Jen. No, not that kind of case! Although Sam’s name evokes Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett (as well as being the name of the protagonist of Andrew J. Fenady’s 1980 comedy-mystery The Man With Bogart’s Face…but I digress), Sam isn’t a detective; he’s a handsome abstract painter who takes wry amusement in helping his friends scramble around alternately burying and exhuming Harry’s corpse as needed.

Meanwhile, Hitchcock’s subtle humor steadily tickles our collective funny bone throughout the film, while good-natured eccentricity abounds and romance blossoms for young and old as Harry goes from dust to dust. Much as I adored MacLaine and Forsythe as the younger romantic leads, I’d go so far as to say that TTwH’s most charming and satisfying romance belongs to Gwenn and Natwick! The dry-humored Mrs. Wiggs, a.k.a. “Wiggy” (Mildred Dunnock of Death of a Salesman fame), postmistress and proprietor of the Wiggs Emporium general store, teams up with Sam to give Miss Gravely a makeover that’ll “take ten years off your birth certificate.” (What would What Not To Wear’s Stacy and Clinton think?
) Now if only Sam would stand still long enough for that New York millionaire (Parker Fennelly, from Fred Allen’s “Allen’s Alley” radio troupe) to buy his paintings, maybe both he and the preternaturally patient Wiggy could make a few bucks!

Harry may be dead, but there’s plenty of life in the characters around him. The denizens of the hamlet treat Harry’s corpse like a whimsical prop, tripping over him (Dwight Marfield cracks me up as absentminded Dr. Greenbow, who I suspect would be diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome today), swiping his shoes, making dates over his corpus delicti—if they’d had WiFi back then, no doubt some enterprising jasper would have built a Starbucks around Harry! As the befuddled Captain Wiles mutters at one point, “Couldn’t have had more people here if I’d sold tickets.” How’s that for recycling?
  Harry’s done the hard part by dropping dead—the real challenge is not only putting him six feet under, but keeping him there! Good thing the action took place in the cool fall instead of Indian Summer, otherwise our heroes wouldn’t be able to keep Harry’s death a secret for long, especially with wary Deputy Sheriff Calvin Wiggs (Royal Dano) making like a bloodhound! I love Jennifer’s wry take on the “paranoia explanation,” too, but that’s a blog post for another time.

Hitchcock teamed up again with screenwriter John Michael Hayes, who also did the honors for Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), and the 1956 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much. Hitchcock’s trusty Director of Photography Robert Burks captured the beauty of the location’s autumn colors brilliantly. I’ve always liked the irony of the leaves being at their most colorful during a season in which the plants are in fact dying. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hitchcock had been thinking along those lines, too, scamp that he was! Even the costume designs by the ever-wonderful Edith Head all have fall colors or earth tones to some degree.

The TTwH ensemble cast is spot-on, working beautifully together. That said, I’ll admit that when I first saw the film in the now-defunct D.W. Griffith Theater in New York City during my college days, my reaction to Forsythe reminded me of a line from Diva (1981): the role suited him so badly that it suited him very well. But Forsythe’s performance has grown on me over the years, and anyway, I’ve always liked his piquant chemistry with MacLaine. By the way, before MacLaine was cast, Hitchcock’s first choice was Grace Kelly (who’s surprised? Anybody? Anybody?), but she wasn’t available. Besides, in my opinion, much as I like Kelly, I think maybe she was a bit too regal for the wholesome yet quirky Jennifer.  Hitchcock also briefly considered Brigitte Auber from To Catch A Thief, but decided Auber’s strong French accent would be too distracting for what had become a very American story. As fans of Raymond Scott’s music, Vinnie and I loved the song “Flaggin’ the Train from Tuscaloosa,” with Scott’s music and Mack David’s lyrics. TTwH was the first score that Bernard Herrmann had ever composed for a Hitchcock film! Herrmann and Hitchcock worked together on 8 more scores, including my favorite, North by Northwest, until their unfortunate falling-out during the making of Torn Curtain in 1966. Herrmann’s score was replaced with John Addison’s, although the unused Torn Curtain score is available on Amazon.com for completists (like me!).
It sure socks to be Harry!

31 comments:

  1. Dorian, I was discussing "The Trouble With Harry" last night with a non-fan and it struck me that it is one of those movies that if you "get it" you love it totally, and if you don't...well, there's just no hope for you!

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  2. I'm a fan of this movie as well, Dorian. I really enjoyed your post. But it's always seemed a bit odd to me that Shirley MacLaine's first movie role didn't require any dancing. But I loved her in this anyway. She just had the most charmingly piquant face - know what I mean? She was/is unique.

    And I loved the Fall in New England setting. I haven't seen this in years though, so my memory of it is sketchy at best. But thanks for covering the film in such detail. It begins to come back to me....Ha!

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  3. Caftan Woman, I'm delighted that you dropped by TotED to join the conversation! Like you, I've found that people are either just wild about ...HARRY or just can't stand it! :-) ...HARRY's style of loopy, understated humor isn't for all tastes, but we of Team Bartilucci adore it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts; please feel free to come around here any old time!

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  4. Yvette, I'm glad you enjoyed my post and that you like THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY as much as Vinnie and I do -- thanks! Yes, I agree it's ironic that dancer/singer Shirley MacLaine's film debut didn't give her any opportunities to show off her terpsichorean talents. On the bright side, it gave our Shirley a chance to show her strengths as an actress! I absolutely agree with you about her "charmingly piquent face," too. No wonder she's still going strong after all these years!

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  5. Oh man....this film.....

    I love this film.

    "Please don't make me dig that hole, again," is one of my all-time favorite lines.

    You know, I wrote about this film, myself. Here's a link:

    http://forgottenclassicsofyesteryear.blogspot.com/2009/12/trouble-with-harry.html

    I would love to know what you think about it.

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  6. Yes, Nate, I'm well aware that you wrote about THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, because I had the pleasure of reading your superb blog post and commenting on it in FORGOTTEN CLASSICS OF YESTERYEAR back in January! :-) There's a link to the original ...HARRY trailer on the TCM Web site and on this very blog, but here's the full link for your convenience:


    http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/78821/Trouble-With-Harry-The-Original-Trailer-.html

    Glad to see we both enjoyed THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY and our respective blog posts about same! :-)

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  7. Ugh...I completely forgot!

    I'm sorry....it's been a long week.

    *smiles weakly*

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  8. *Pshaw* my friend, no apologies or weak smiles are necessary! :-) We're all busy people, and none of us can keep everything at the forefront of our brains. By the way, if you're attending school in NYC, you might want to subscribe to Time Out New York (TONY) if you don't already. This weekly magazine has valuable info on every aspect of life and fun in NYC, including lots of tips on where to find cheap or free eats and entertainment. Even though I live in NE PA, I've kept up my subscription because we visit NYC every chance we get. Check it out and enjoy!

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  9. Wait...you live in NE PA? I live right outside Philadelphia!

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  10. No kidding? Great googly moogly, it's truly a small world after all! We live in the Lehigh Valley, a mere hop, skip, and jump from Allentown -- about 2 hours' drive from my hometown, New York City, which we visit as often as we can, time and finances permitting. Perhaps we of Team Bartilucci can meet up with Team Hood in NYC for a friendly lunch sometime! :-)

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  11. Lehigh Valley?

    I reside in Bucks County!

    I would love meeting up sometime!

    By the way, have you checked out my latest blog entry? It's kind of important.........

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  12. Goodness gracious, this small world gets ever smaller, albeit in a good way! :-) Our crew and yours will have to map out a plan to get together for a meet-and-greet some month soon. It's always busy here at Team Bartilucci H.Q. (you only THINK I'm kidding!), but we'll all come up with something that'll work with everyone's schedules before the year is over! :-)

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  13. Hey, everyone, you simply must read our own
    Nathanael Hood's stirring, heartfelt review of one of his "Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear," Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi's 1949 drama MY LOVE BURNS. If you like the review, by all means see the film!

    http://forgottenclassicsofyesteryear.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-love-burns.html

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  14. Ah yes! What is the Fall without the season being filtered through Hitchcock's discerning eye? There's obviously something about the addition of a dead body which enhances the color of autumn leaves (I refuse to give any of the credit to Jerry Mathers).

    I can't watch this film without shaking my head a bit (and usually mentally) at Shirley MacLaine. I mean, how would you like for your first film director to be Alfred Hitchcock? Yes, I understand it's an honor an all, but whatever happened to giving a girl a chance? Whatever happened to starting out with, say, Fred C. Bannon, or William Beaudine? Oh noooo, not for our leggy heroine. She has to endure the sly humor of Sir Al (and some excellent anecdotes can be found in DON'T FALL OFF THE MOUNTAIN). Obviously her experience on the stage served her well as she managed (at least to my eyes) to move coolly through the role. Perhaps the Blu-Ray version will allow us to hear her knees knocking.

    (Interesting bit of trivia: Shirley's next film would not only have her the only Hitchcock grad in the cast, but would also feature a brief reference to yet another Hitchcock film. Anyone? Anyone?)

    As with you, Dorian, I would've been happy had the film spent more time with Gwenn and Natwick, but Where's Sara . . . Where's Sara? Is anyone else besides me fascinated by the fact that Hitchcock had a genius for enhancing both Murder and Romance? Almost as if one couldn't occur without the other.

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  15. Indeed, Michael, in Hitchcock Land, murder and romance always seem to be inevitably intertwined! As for your trivia about "our leggy heroine" Shirley (loved your quips about her screen debut!), if I recall correctly (mind you, I said "if"), her follow-up film was the Oscar-winning extravaganza AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, with former Hitchcock supporting actor Peter Lorre doing a cameo. Anyone second that emotion? :-)

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  16. Oops, Dorian. Not quite recalling correctly here. Our Miss MacLaine did go on to enchant audiences as the Princess Aouda in AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS (this, MY GEISHA and GAMBIT demonstrated, at least to my satisfaction, that Shirley possessed an interesting talent for Asian roles), but in between that role and THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, there was yet another film.

    Tick tock tick tock tick tock . . .

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  17. *D-OH!* Hmm, what else -- ooh, wait, Uncle Mikey, I think I know! ARTISTS AND MODELS? :-) And yes, for a freckle-faced redhead of Irish descent, Shirley MacLaine showed a remarkable talent for playing Asians and Eurasians. My dear mom would've said Shirley must've been Asian in a past life! :-)

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  18. Great stuff, Dorian! It has been so long since I've seen TTwH that your article reminded me of how much I like it and want to see it again! I am one of Bernard Herrmann's biggest fans -- I think he was the greatest movie composer of all the greats. I didn't realize, however, that this was his first Hitchcock score.

    I cannot IMAGINE Grace Kelly in Shirley's role, nor indeed any other of Hitchcock's famous cool blondes. The movie would have fallen flat as a pancake with any of them. Brunettes and redheads do come in handy, too, Hitch!

    Loved your post!

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  19. Thanks so much for your praise, Becky! I especially appreciate what you said about Bernard Herrmann. It's ironic that he won an Oscar for THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (a.k.a. ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY), but not for any of his Hitchcock scores. Wish we could travel in time and stuff the Academy's music nomination ballot box! :-) And you've hit the nail on the head about why Hitchcock's beloved cool blondes, wonderful though they were, just weren't quite right to play Jennifer Rogers. "Brunettes and redheads do come in handy, too, Hitch" - as a gal with hair on the reddish side, I couldn't agree more! :-)

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  20. Very Good, Dorian. It is, indeed, ARTISTS AND MODELS. If you wish to see the Hitchcock parody I mentioned, the whole film is currently available at YouTube. You'll find the scene beginning at 1:21:10.

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  21. Delightful post, Dorian! Thanks for linking me to it. One thing I'd forgotten (it's been a while since I've seen it): TTwH is the movie that proves once and for all (for those of us who always kind of wondered) that Mildred Natwick and Mildred Dunnock are, in fact, two different people.

    Thanks too for the link to the trailer over at TCM; it's also a riot, with that ersatz travelogue opening.

    Finally, I may be mistaken, but I've always understood it to be the case that Around the World in 80 Days was actually Shirley MacLaine's first movie -- it's just that the post-production took so long that Harry and Artists and Models hit theaters first. Can anybody confirm?

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  22. Jim, thanks for your praise; I'm so glad you enjoyed the TROUBLE WITH HARRY links! When things go well, modern technology CAN be our friend! :-) I got a kick out of your quip about finally having proof that the Mildreds Dunnock and Natwick are indeed two different women.

    According to the IMDb, ARTISTS AND MODELS did come out before AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, but I can only take their word for it. If anyone else here has more info, I'd be interested, too!

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  23. Hi all,

    I enjoyed reading your posts on TTwH. I always thought I was the ONLY one who enjoyed this Hitchcock sleeper! I'm originally from a small Vermont town like the one in the film. I've always wondered where in Vermont the on site shots were taken. Anyone know? Also, the song sung by John Forsythe's character, who actually sang it? NOT John Forsythe I'm assuming (it just didn't sound like it could be his voice!!) I can't find anything on the web about who gets the credit for singing "Flaggin' the Train to Tuscaloosa". Anyone have any ideas? It is driving me crazy every time I see the film. Thanks!

    Mary in Boston, MA

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    1. Mary, it's nice to meet you -- glad to have met you here at TotED! Fear not, over the years, THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY seems to be happily discovered by movie lovers like you and me and all of us here!

      How cool that you're a Vermont native yourself! Alas, I haven't been able to find out who sings "Flaggin' the Train from Tuscaloosa," either, though I know the song was the work of Mack David and Raymond Scott. Wouldn't it be great if it turned out John Forsythe was the uncredited singer after all? You never can tell!

      Thanks to the TCM Web site, I found more info about the movie locations from writer Paul Tatara:

      "Hitchcock intended to film all of THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY on location,in the towns of Stowe, Morrisville, Craftsbury, and Sugarbush. Unfortunately, the weather didn't always cooperate, and the shoot became a headache. Many scenes were staged on sets that were built at a local gymnasium. Even that was tough, however, as rainfall regularly echoed off the building's tin roof, ruining takes. Later, the woods had to be partially reconstructed on a Hollywood lot, so that Hitchcock could get a few more shots of Harry lying in the leaves. To make it even more difficult, the actor who played the corpse (Philip Truex) was in New York City, so a double was cast and his head was hidden by a bush to maintain continuity. As a finishing touch, one character's reference to Daniel Boone was changed to Davy Crockett in post-production, to take full advantage of the Crockett-mania that was then sweeping the nation. All in the name of art."

      Hope that helps, Mary! Thanks for joining the ...HARRY conversation, and feel free to drop by TotED any time!

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  24. Just ran across this forum, and hoping Mary and Dorian are still out there after a year and a half. I've been obsessed with the voice in the song for quite some time, not the question of who is singing it, because it is obviously Royal Dano. But what I cant figure out is why nobody else seems to know about it. I've got more to add to this, so if I hear back from you, we can resurrect the discussion.

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    1. Glad to catch up with you, Tom! Now my husband Vinnie and I are are manning TALES OF THE EASILY DISTRACTED (TotED for short), but please feel free to drop by and chat! I agree that it sure sounds like Royal Dano. We'll have to dig deeper, but hey, that's part of the fun! Thanks for joining the TROUBLE WITH HARRY fun and frolic!

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  25. Dorian, Mary, its Royal Dano singing the song.

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  26. Glad to hear that the discussion of Harry isnt over. Did you think it sounded like Royal Dano before I mentioned it? Just curious. I hope your research sources are better than mine, because I came up with nothing on this item. Since the movie was off the market for so long, I fear that some information about it is lost forever, and proving who sung the song will not be done without the aid of voiceprinting technology. But I enlisted the help of a couple of vocal music professionals, and we feel that it is most certainly Dano's voice. Maybe a bit extreme, but being sure about it goes along with understanding what Hitchcock is doing in the scene in question. In the movie, he showcases his unusual sense of humor, and challenges the viewer to grasp what he dishes out. The barely visible cameo, the subtle jokes, such as Miss Gravely's first name, that we dont hear until the end of the movie. Ivy, like what grows on graves. In the scene with the song, I believe he planned to give the viewer an unsettled feeling, and challenged us to figure out why we werent completely comfortable with the pastoral scene and the easy listening that went with it. He didnt let us see anybody's lips move, because the characters were too far away. He gives us a sung voice, deep and unlike the voices of any of the characters seen so far. After the song ends, we meet Dano, and then inside the store Mildred Natwick asks John Forsythe, "Whats that song you sing, you sing it so well?" Making matters worse, the available sound track lists Forsythe as the singer. I think that what Hitchcock has done here is no coincidence, but a carefully planned joke on the audience, making it very difficult to figure out. In light of this, it would make sense to me that he had Dano sing it, since he was there on the set, but unseen, and the voice was completely different from the others. Seeing this as a well planned prank, along with the input from the vocal expert, leaved me convinced its Dano. I cant imagine it being anyone else. For a little bit of extra help, he has a singing role as a chaplain in The Right Stuff. If you're interested, you may want to watch The Right Stuff, and listen to the voices in Harry again. Anyway, I hope you can find confirmation in somebodys archive, but I suspect few people knew the story when the movie was filmed, and the passing years, many with the film off the market, the story is lost forever.

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    1. Tom, you've given us a lot to chew on! I think you've got something there with your suggestions about what's behind the far-away shots. After all, Hitchcock was a bit of a playful imp, after all. In any even, it sure sounded like Royal Dano to me. This is as much of a quirky mystery as the end of THE QUIET MAN -- but at least these are fun, playful mysteries! Thanks for your thoughtful theories, Tom!

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  27. I hope digging deeper yields some results, but I am not optimistic. I've dug into it, and some others have done so, and no one has found anything. If you have read the TCM message boards, I started some discussion of this, and the following may be redundant. I think the long years that the movie has been off the market may have something to do with a loss of information, but then it may have been a closely held secret from the beginning. Here's why I feel that way. You may or may have not noticed that after the song scene, Mildred Natwick asks John Forsythe, "Whats that song you sing, you sing it so well?' Since you dont think the voice is Forsythe's, it would be odd that Hitchcock, the perfectionist, would not have changed that line. Also, the available soundtrack for the movie lists Forsythe as the singer. And we see the captain, the doctor, the tramp and Forsythe in the song scene, but not close enough to see their lips moving or not. The song ends and we see Dano, for the first time, who was on the set but not viewed in the scene. This all seems very well planned to me, and in keeping with the rest of the film, where we are challenged to find the Hitchcock cameo, and to find all of the jokes in the dialog. I'm convinced that he was using a favorite theme of his, which portraying a world, calm and orderly on the surface, but something unsettling is going on, and its not easy to figure out why. He used the voice in the song to tease the viewer, but the joke was so subtle that it got by most everybody. My guess is that those people who were in on it when it was filmed are now long gone, and the proof of the identity of the singer was lost over the time the movie was off the market. So my take on it is if you can see the planned prank in the scene, then who else would have been the singer, other than Dano. One thing I did do, is run it by a couple of vocal music teachers. They listened to the sung and spoken voices, and feel certain it was Dano. His voice is so unique. So I'm looking for input on this, wondering if this is a real undiscovered Hitchcock gag, or maybe I'm just seeing something that isnt there. Hope you have some fun with this.

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  28. Oops! Ignore my repeat posts, please. I thought some were lost in cyberspace, and as I resubmit, I see my original pop up. Did this twice. Sorry for the confusion.

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