One of director Alfred Hitchcock's groaners, a COMEDY which takes place in a sleepy New England town where a Bostonian man lays dead in the woods from a gunshot wound; the thin plot revolves around a handful of kooky residents who each have a run-in with the corpse. A very fine cast (the always-excellent Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine in her debut, Mildred Natwick, Jerry Mathers as MacLaine's son) can't do much with this hackneyed script, and surprisingly neither can Hitchcock. The Master's pacing is so sluggish that he seems to be not quite present, yet the autumnal scenery is beautiful and the characters would be amusing if they had peppier lines. MacLaine is a fetching gamine, but she seems intent on pushing lemonade on everybody (she's overtly 'natural'). The song "Flaggin' the Train to Tuscaloosa" is memorable, and the basic theme of the movie (the troublesome corpse) is ripe for terrific possibilities which aren't quite realized here. It's cozy but bland. ** from ****