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I have to chuckle when I read some of the over-the-top raves this film has gotten from supposedly American viewers.<br /><br />The Trouble With Harry will only work for you if you're a fan of:<br /><br />A) British drawing room humor B) French slapstick/farce C) Hitchcock's --- and a rabid one --- who vehemently believe he never failed at anything<br /><br />This is one of the rare instances when the studio idiots were actually right when they told Hitchcock not to embark on this project. It's a British movie made from a British novel with a distinctly European sensibility that posits that the back and forth burying and unearthing of a corpse for nearly 100 minutes is just the most hilarious thing ever. Because he's dead, you know? And since death is such a grim concept that everyone --- everyone, right? --- feels uncomfortable with, you just *HAVE* to laugh at it --- cause it's so freaking hysterical. Did you get that? Did you?<br /><br />OK, I know I'm being obnoxious here, but that's about how subtle this film is, and unfortunately unless you have the sensibilities described above (most of which I believe are akin to coming from a specific geographical area), you're in for a very tedious viewing session.<br /><br />I could say the same thing about Richard Linklater's "Slacker," which is one of my favorite films of all time, and which I consider to be quite brilliant. Notice that both films have virtually no plot and rely on very specific culturally-inundated humor --- but Linklater's humor is self-referential and Hitchcock's is not. <br /><br />And that --- I think --- is why most people don't get Harry. To most Americans who equate humor with Woody Allen and Seinfeld (not Jerry Lewis and Benny Hill), the Trouble With Harry is he's...boring. |