The Trouble with Harry

 (1955)

The Trouble with Harry Blu-ray delivers stunning video and great audio in this overall recommended Blu-ray release
A corpse creates a world of trouble for several passersby who each believe they may have caused the death. Filmed in VistaVision

For more about The Trouble with Harry and The Trouble with Harry Blu-ray release, see The Trouble with Harry Blu-ray Review

Starring: Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Mildred Natwick, Royal Dano, Mildred Dunnock
Director: Alfred Hitchcock

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The Trouble with Harry Blu-ray Review

"He looked exactly the same when he was alive, only he was vertical."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown, November 2, 2012

A man confronts his accuser atop the Statue of Liberty, where one false move will spell death. A wolf in sheep's clothing allows the beast lurking within to bear its teeth. A housemaster slowly, oh so slowly, pieces together the heinous crime perpetrated by two former students. A woman searches for clues in a suspected murderer's apartment just as the man returns home. Four people work to keep the demise of a fellow smalltown resident a secret from a local deputy. An assassin's gun slides out from behind a curtain as an ordinary man races to thwart his plot. An airplane buzzes then roars past as a man dives for cover. The hiss of a shower masks the approach of a madman with a knife in his hand. Countless birds gather on a jungle gym as a woman smokes a cigarette nearby. A husband barges into his new wife's bedroom and has his way with her as she retreats into a near-catatonic state. A physicist discovers killing a man isn't as easy as it might seem, wrestling with his victim right up until the violent end. A purple dress billows out beneath a dying woman like spilled blood. A serial killer retrieves his pin from a woman's grasp, one dead finger at a time. A fake psychic tries to squirm out of a thief's vice-like grip as he pushes a syringe closer and closer. Be it drama, horror or comedy, psychological stunner, monster movie or international spy thriller, is it any mystery that filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was known as the Master of Suspense? Is it any wonder his movies still hold hypnotic sway over filmfans all these years later?

No one really minds that Harry is dead. There's just that little matter of disposing of the body...

The most surprising aspect of Hitchcock's films, though, especially for the uninitiated, is the director's whiplash wit, razor's edge comedy and devilishly delightful laughs. And there's no better example of the master's comedic genius than The Trouble with Harry, which stands as both a sharp smalltown whodunit and a fun, bitingly bleak farce. No small feat considering how odd the story and the mystery that unspools actually is. It all begins with a young boy's discovery of the titular character's body, lying face up with a neat little head wound. Enter a trio of strangely unmoved locals -- Harry's relieved wife Jennifer (Shirley MacLaine), retired seaman Captain Wiles (Edmund Gween) and straight-laced old maid Miss Gravely (Mildred Natwick) -- each of whom believes he or she killed poor, not-so-dearly departed Harry. Do they panic? No. Are they frightened? Nope. Are they bothered by Harry's demise at all? Not a bit. They barely manage to raise an eyebrow, except when trying to decide what to do with Harry's corpse. Even artist Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe), who helps his companions conceal the body several times over, doesn't bat an eyelash. So goes one of Hitchcock's quirkiest, funniest and most tragically overlooked films; one that was such a colossal failure upon its release that it almost disappeared from memory and still remains an obscure, oft-forgotten classic few people have heard of, much less enjoyed. The Trouble with Harry isn't quite a masterpiece, at least not by Rear Window or Vertigo standards, but it delivers on its promise and hits all the right notes.

The Trouble with Harry Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

Aside from some hard-to-miss but ever-so-brief ghosting in the opening minutes of the film (all attributable to the source, not the restoration or high definition encode), The Trouble with Harry doesn't have much trouble at all. Robert Burks' pleasant autumn palette is warm and striking, with vivid colors, strong primaries, accurately saturated fleshtones and deep black levels. Contrast is dead on as well, as is detail, which rarely falters. Textures are clean and well-resolved, closeups are revealing, edge definition is refined (albeit at the expense of some minor ringing), grain is even and filmic, and delineation is quite good. There also isn't much in the way of print damage, scratches, blemishes or encoding artifacts to contend with, and noise reduction and other digital restoration techniques have been employed with care, almost to the point of being imperceptible by all but the most trained eye. Ultimately, Hitchcock's dark comedy boasts one of the most colorful, richly realized presentations in the 15-film Masterpiece Collection.

The Trouble with Harry Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

The Trouble with Harry also features an able-bodied two-channel DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track sure to delight fans and leave newcomers grinning. Granted, there's nothing particularly remarkable about the film's light and lively soundscape or the resulting lossless experience, but the mix is playful and precise, with clear, perfectly intelligible dialogue, convincing effects and bright, bouyant music. There isn't any distracting hiss or bothersome noise floor either, making this one yet another solid Hitchcock lossless experience.

The Trouble with Harry Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

 

• The Trouble with Harry Isn't Over (SD, 32 minutes): "Frankly I don't care what you do with Harry as long as you don't bring him back to life!" Hitchcock's daughter Pat Hitchcock O'Connell returns for another documentary, this time with associate producer Herbert Coleman, screenwriter John Michael Hayes and actor John Forsythe (Sam Marlowe), to extensive ends. Topics covered include Paramount's initial resistance in financing the picture, the director's left turn into black comedy, the crucial role of his wife in his career, the casting of Shirley MacLaine and her co-stars (among them Harry's corpse), the film's mid-production weather troubles and subsequent challenges, the incorporation of music, Hitch's collaboration with Bernard Herrmann and more.
• Production Photographs (SD, 6 minutes): Movie posters, vintage ads and production photos.
• Theatrical Trailer (SD, 2 minutes)

The Trouble with Harry Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

 

The Trouble with Harry is one of the Masterpiece Collection's most unexpected surprises. The film is Hitchcock at his comedic best, the laughs come fast and frequently, and the Blu-ray edition doesn't disappoint thanks to a fittingly faithful restoration, a terrific video transfer and an excellent DTS-HD Master Audio mono mix. It's light on extras, which is a shame, but it's still one of the better discs in the 15-film Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection box set. As someone who counts Harry a personal Hitchcock favorite, I'm more than pleased with its high definition treatment.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment is releasing individual versions of four films from the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection: Saboteur (1942) and Rope (1948) on May 7th, Shadow of a Doubt (1943) on June 4th and The Trouble with Harry (1955) on July 2nd. ...