Alfred Hitchcock's "The Trouble with Harry"......

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....fucking sucks.

Discuss.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 22 October 2005 23:57 (twenty years ago)

don't care for this one either.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 23 October 2005 00:04 (twenty years ago)

Well, Shirley MacLaine looks pretty hot.

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 23 October 2005 00:09 (twenty years ago)

looked

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 23 October 2005 00:09 (twenty years ago)

B-b-but it has Jerry Mathers in it!

"Hitch, don't you think you were awful hard on the beaver last night?"

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 23 October 2005 00:18 (twenty years ago)

I've never been able to pay attention to it all the way through. Even The Paradine Case is better.

― k/l (Ken L), Sunday, 23 October 2005 00:49 (twenty years ago)

Not one of my favs either, but...

*back pedals HARD*

...haven't seen it in ages so maybe I need to see it again before I commit, in case I suddenly look at it thru new adult eyes or something happens that will cause me to think it's stellar. Reserve the right to correct myself here within a weeks time.

OT,

What is your fav Hitch? don't want to look up thread...but shall anyway.

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Sunday, 23 October 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

"The Trouble with Harry" is charming, and is certainly one of the prettier looking Hitchcock films.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Sunday, 23 October 2005 01:02 (twenty years ago)

Somehow I read this as meaning that Hitch only made a handful of pretty-looking films, Josh, which I'm hardpressed to believe.

― k/l (Ken L), Sunday, 23 October 2005 01:07 (twenty years ago)

It came appended in a box of Hitchcock "masterpieces" I just got. Omitted from the boxset: "North By Northwest," "Suspicion", "To Catch a Thief," "Strangers on a Train".....but this one's a "masterpiece"? I think not.

Shirley did look good, though, yes. The film, otherwise, has as much charm as a shoebox filled with larvae.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 23 October 2005 01:18 (twenty years ago)

Those weren't omitted, they came out in another companie's box set. It's all about who owns the rights.

― Are You Nomar? (miloaukerman), Sunday, 23 October 2005 01:20 (twenty years ago)

What is your fav Hitch? don't want to look up thread...but shall anyway.

My answer: "North By Mofuckin' Northwest," followed swiftly by "Vertigo"

The wife's answer: "Rebecca"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 23 October 2005 12:12 (twenty years ago)

The trouble with Harry is that it's uncharacteristically static and arch, a filmed play. Similiar problems arise with Ropethough the Leopold-Lowe connection elevates it a bit.

IIRC these two movies along w/Vertigo and Rear Window enjoyed a theatrical release in the early 80s after being "lost" (not shown on US TV)for many years.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 23 October 2005 12:19 (twenty years ago)

"I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it " is the best screen name ever. It provides a perfect closing line for any post!

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Sunday, 23 October 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

it's pretty boring. Rope at least has Jimmy Stewart screaming in it. also "Mouse, cat, mouse! Only which is the cat and which is the mouse?!"

Rebecca and North By Northwest are my faves.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 23 October 2005 13:48 (twenty years ago)

"you've given my words a meaning that I never DREEEEAMED of!!!"

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 23 October 2005 13:50 (twenty years ago)

I do hope JW recognizes those words as his own every time he reads a post of mine.

BTW, my favorite Hitchcock is Rear Window. I need to watch a lot more of his movies, though.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 23 October 2005 13:58 (twenty years ago)

Yeah it sucks. I'm a bit of a Hitchcock obsessive, have read all the biogs etc, totally my favourite film-maker and I've never been able to watch TTWH all the way through.

I'm absolutely fine with Rope, seen it several times, not one of his best but still very enjoyable.

― frankiemachine, Sunday, 23 October 2005 14:44 (twenty years ago)

this is the only major (or at least famous) hitch i've never seen, for some reason. i keep almost renting it, but then i figure i'll probably catch it on TCM one of these days anyway.

rope seems to have more of a cult following than you'd expect: i've known a surprising amount of ppl who say it's their favorite! i go back and forth between notorious and vertigo: the latter is his masterpiece easy but the former's more fun to watch.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 23 October 2005 15:11 (twenty years ago)

Never seen "Rope" either....legend has that it's simply one long shot. True?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 23 October 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

sorta - it's a series of long shots carefully arranged so they look like one continuous shot.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 23 October 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

Rope was my favorite back when I was a Hitchcock obsessive in middle school. Storywise, it's really starchy though (most Hitchcock's are, which is why he's not as interesting for me anymore). It's not actually one long shot (every ten minutes or so they zoom in on someone's black jacket or a still shot of a vase so that film reels can change - it's fun to watch for!), but its made to look like one.

x-post!

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 23 October 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

It's funny that at one time I thought it was actually one long shot - never thought to wonder why the camera kept bumping into people's backs.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 23 October 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

DVDSavant's cutting breakdown:

00.00 Start Titles
02:30 CUT to the strangling in progress
12:05 PUSH IN AND OUT to Dall's back as he picks up books from the buffet
19:55 CUT from profile Kenneth to entrance of Janet
27:13 PUSH IN AND OUT on Kenneth's back as he takes a drink into bedroom for Janet (this one is very smooth)
34:22 CUT from cu Granger to ms Stewart on "That's a Lie!"
44:14 PUSH IN AND OUT Dall as Stewart crosses with ice cream (bad match)
51:54 CUT to Maid from Stewart as he harasses both young men.
55:00 (note) here's where you can see the Hitchcock silhouette neon sign out the window!
59:40 PUSH IN AND OUT Dall's back as he sends for his car
69:57 JUMP CUT on empty hallway view (and it does jump) as Rupert enters talking about hiding the body.
74:26 PUSH IN AND OUT dark lid of the chest as Rupert opens it.
80:04 dissolve to end credits. Return

― Are You Nomar? (miloaukerman), Sunday, 23 October 2005 15:46 (twenty years ago)

TTWH is a bit silly, but I think it's supposed to be. It was not intended as one of his masterpieces. It's a light comedy.

Omitting Strangers on a Train is a crime. North by Northwest is way overrated, except that it does have Cary Grant, which is always big points. Rope doesn't get enough love. Notorious is pure genius through and through. Vertigo is the deepest, but Rear Window is easily my favorite. When I first saw it at 15, it scared the pee out of me, but I didn't understand what all that boy-girl banter was all about. Now I do, and the movie works in whole new ways. As well as all of the old ones. It's suspenseful as all shit.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Sunday, 23 October 2005 16:05 (twenty years ago)

And OMG is Grace Kelley beautiful or what? The Stewart character's fear of commitment has to be pretty ingrained to turn her down. I'd marry her in a half a second.

Ah, the sacred institution of marraige.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Sunday, 23 October 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B0002HOERG.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― Are You Nomar? (miloaukerman), Sunday, 23 October 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

Robert Walker is the best evil homosexual EVER. One of my favorite movie villains.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Sunday, 23 October 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

there's something kinda misogynistic about strangers on a train that bothers me. the murder scene in that one's somehow more upsetting than the one in psycho.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 23 October 2005 16:42 (twenty years ago)

I liked Rope enough that when forming bands in my youth I always wanted to call themArtie Strauss. I was always outvoted.

Agree about the misogyny in SOAT & of course it's Hitch's much loved daughter that's being murdered. What was the murder scene like in the novel? Wasn't Highsmith a lesbian who didn't like women? As always with Hitch many layers of weird.

― frankiemachine, Sunday, 23 October 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

TCM is running most or all of the Hitchcock films for halloween.

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Sunday, 23 October 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

kenan otm. lovebug otm about rope and the lost movies. Even if you don't view rope as a success, the "one-shot" experiment is interesting in itself, and I dunno, I seem to recall some of the scenes as still seeming to be scenes in an actual movie and not some drawn-out drawing room murder mystery/comedy. For a filmed play that is not top-drawer Hitchcock but is still watchable, see Dial M For Murder

― k/l (Ken L), Sunday, 23 October 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)

Rear Window, for all reasons - story, aesthetics, Grace Kelly, cool extra stuff happening in the background ....

I think I liked The Man Who Knew Too Much (2) too, but I haven't seen it in about 10 years. Just saw NXNW again - not as good as I remember. Rope - meh .. good, but not Vertigo good. I just picked up a box set of early films (10 films for $15) .. not his best either, but should be good winter watching....

― when something smacks of something (dave225.3), Sunday, 23 October 2005 18:01 (twenty years ago)

The one-shot gimic of "Rope"

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

I think I only saw TTWH once and found it cute, accomplished and minor. The very thought of Mildred Natwick makes me chortle!

>Even The Paradine Case is better.<

Hey! That's underappreciated.

>Agree about the misogyny in SOAT & of course it's Hitch's much loved daughter that's being murdered.<

No, it's not ... I think we've been through this before. Pat Hitchcock plays Ruth Roman's kid sister, Laura Elliott plays Guy's ex-wife. Misogyny? I dunno. The first half is reasonably faithful to Highsmith, esp the Miriam fairground murder, and no one's calling P.H. misogynist. And I'd quarrel on pigeonholing Walker as "homosexual." He's certainly 'queer' but not in such a specific way... see Robin Wood's "Hitchcock's Films Revisited."

TCM is showing 36 of the 53 features (a few of which are lost). The only US one I've missed is "Stage Fright."

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

I think I only saw TTWH once and found it cute, accomplished and minor.

For once I am agreeing w/Morbius!

― So so Krispie (Ex Leon), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

Hitchcock's misogyny (sorta) was fascinating. He found his ideal woman in Grace Kelly (him and everyone else), and when she retired he kind of snapped. He tried to make a new blonde lead out of Tipi Hedron, and recreate Kim Novak to hi ... er, Jimmy Stewart's liking. But in his later years rape looms large in his flicks, especially in "Marnie" and "Frenzy." In the latter it's kind of played for laughs, too.

"Cute, accomplished and minor" is OTM. Anyone who thinks this film is one of his worst, let alone his worst, has yet to watch his worst.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

Sooner or later, everyone agrees with me once.

Frankly, the theme of "Harry" is similar to "Blue Velvet" -- did someone mention 'misogyny' btw? -- and it's funnier, just with less weird hipster shit.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

Lifeboat is my new Hitchcock favorite.

― kephm (kephm), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

I think Agnes Moorehead tried to sink that Lifeboat.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

James Agee on Lifeboat (both times)> Lifeboat.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Monday, 24 October 2005 21:31 (twenty years ago)

Robin Wood isn't such a great source for misogyny since one of his stated goals was to 'save' Hitch from feminism. Tania Modleski's The Women is Knew Too Much is super classic (though, she doesn't discuss SOAT), though--she's a feminist sympathetic to Hitchcock without gilding the misogyny in his films OR oversimplifying them for a larger polemical purpose.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Monday, 24 October 2005 21:36 (twenty years ago)

Tallulah Bankhead was not wearing underwear.

― kephm (kephm), Monday, 24 October 2005 21:53 (twenty years ago)

a good argument against hitch-as-misogynist might be that he used sympathetic female protagonists more often than any major 40s/50s hollywood director i can think of - the lady vanishes, rebecca, suspicion, shadow of a doubt, notorious, even vertigo in a way.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 24 October 2005 22:00 (twenty years ago)

When advised of this situation, director Alfred Hitchcock observed, "I don't know if this is a matter for the costume department, makeup, or hairdressing."

― kephm (kephm), Monday, 24 October 2005 22:01 (twenty years ago)

Stage Fright, Morbius? You've gotta see that one, if only for the scene of Marlene asking them to make her widow's weeds more revealing.

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 00:49 (twenty years ago)

>Robin Wood isn't such a great source for misogyny since one of his stated goals was to 'save' Hitch from feminism.<

I don't amen every word of Wood, but depending on what brand of feminism you're talking about -- ie, the kind that lionizes shit like The Silence of the Lambs or Thelma & Louise as 'feminist' -- that's not necessarily a bad thing.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:35 (twenty years ago)

Hitchcock's Films was published in '76 or '77--he's pretty clearly responding to Laura Mulvey and Screen. Either way, there are plenty of legit feminist complaints against Hitch that should be addressed rather than glossed over.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 17:25 (twenty years ago)

I don't disagree that they should be addressed... but are there an unusual number compared to other filmmakers of the time? Or is the preponderance of them due to thrillers inevitably placing women in jeopardy? Shouldn't DePalma far more culpable to the same sets of eyes, given the more 'enlightened' era in which he's labored?

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 17:48 (twenty years ago)

ten years pass...

this movie starts out promising, its charming and darkly whimsical but just gets boring and repetitive after a while....and its not funny either. pity, there was potential for it. too arch and stilted for its own good perhaps

― tayto fan (Michael B), Sunday, 15 November 2015 19:42 (ten years ago)

I find Edmund Gwenn funny as fuck in this. Sure, it isn't one of Hitchcock's finest but I still think it is a very memorable movie.

― xelab, Sunday, 15 November 2015 21:00 (ten years ago)

Yeah, its a weird one. The disconnect between tone and content was less amusing than just highly awkward to me.

― Fetty Wap Is Strong In Here (cryptosicko), Sunday, 15 November 2015 21:35 (ten years ago)

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