Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
The trouble with Harry is that he’s dead. In a quiet Vermont village, a corpse creates unexpected chaos as several townspeople each believe they may be to blame.
Hitchcock's autumnal Vermont comedy is visually ravishing — Gordon Harris's VistaVision photography of the fall foliage is genuinely exceptional, giving the film a lush, painterly quality that stands apart. The black-comedy premise (repeated corpse exhumations played for gentle laughs) is charming and light, though the plot meanders and the whodunit mystery feels deliberately toothless. Acting is pleasant and naturalistic — John Forsythe and Shirley MacLaine (in her debut) are appealing — but no one delivers a truly outstanding performance. Novelty is modest: it's distinctively gentle for Hitchcock but not wildly singular in conception. The ending deflates rather than satisfies, wrapping things up in a breezy but anticlimactic shrug that undercuts the comic tension built throughout.