Hitchcock tries out his hand at comedy, one of his least traveled paths. The Trouble With Harry will at first glance appear to be Hitchcock kind of taking a break from "serious" films, the thrillers and suspense films that he is best known for, and relaxing a bit with a light comedy, but there is much more going on in this film than that. First of all, only Hitchcock would come out with something that could be termed a "light comedy" when the central figure in the film from beginning to end is a dead body, but a lot of Hitchcock's standard themes are very prevalent in the film, even though it differs so much from his traditional style.<br /><br />First and foremost, of course, is Hitch's real life, almost crippling fear of the police, whom he portrays so often in films as bumbling, incompetent blockheads. The film is almost entirely dialogue driven, the crisp exchanges are almost nonstop from beginning to end and never get boring. Shirley MacLaine makes a brilliant film debut as Harry's new widow, displaying the perfect amount of charm and sweetness that allows us to immediately forgive her gladness at her husband's sudden death, no matter how mysterious or how many times the supposed responsibility for his death changes hands.<br /><br />As the blame is circulated among the diverse and likable group of main characters, the procession of guilt and responsibility leads to Harry being dug up and re-buried several times, until Jennifer (MacLaine) is asked what she thinks they should do, to which she replies, "I don't care what you do with his so long as you don't bring him back to life." There is a recurring set device of a closet that just won't stay closed which seems to have caused some confusion as to its meaning, and I have a feeling that, since there is never anything actually hidden in it, it is a metaphorical thing that points to one of the underlying themes of the film, that of guilt. Skeletons in the closet, that kind of thing. Purely speculation, of course, but it makes sense to me.<br /><br />John Forsythe gives a brilliant, perfectly cool and laid back performance as the hugely likable Sam Marlowe, and his exchanges with Arnie, played by Jerry Mathers in his pre-Beaver days, are some of the best moments in the film, and this is also the first of a great many tremendously successful collaborations between Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrman. Also keep your eye out for Hitch's cameo, which goes by much quicker than usual, you can miss it in a split second.