A dead body's refusal to stay buried unexpectedly leads to romance for two couples in this black comedy that became arguably Alfred Hitchcock's most offbeat and visually gorgeous film.
Pre-screening Gallery Talk: Steinberg in Focus | February 4, 12pm | Moravec Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Gallery, third floor, Eskenazi Museum of Art: Nan Brewer, the Eskenazi Museum of Art’s Lucienne M. Glaubinger Curator of Works on Paper and the co-curator of the exhibition Magic Ledger: The Drawings of Saul Steinberg, will discuss the modernist artist’s relationship with the film industry, his time in California, his interest in American popular culture, and related drawings. Free, no registration required.
One of Alfred Hitchcock’s funniest black comedies (and his first collaboration with composer Bernard Herrmann), The Trouble with Harry explores the pesky problem of what to do with a dead body that can't seem to stay buried. The additional trouble with Harry is that no one really knows how he died or who may have killed him. Starring John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine in a luminous film debut which won her the Golden Globe for most promising newcomer, and a host of outstanding character actors (including Mildred Natwick and Edmund Gwenn), the film was beautifully filmed in autumnal Vermont and became one of Hitchcock's personal favorites. [99 min; comedy, mystery; English]
This is the first Art and a Movie program to focus on a lesser-recognized, but important, aspect of the filmmaking process: the title (or opening) sequence. Hitchcock sought out Saul Steinberg—best known for his New Yorker covers—for the intro to bring levity to the film’s macabre themes. Steinberg revisited the long, narrow format of his ten-meter-long drawing, The Line, from his “Children’s Labyrinth” at the 10th Triennial of Milan. The title sequence not only sets up the playful, comic, and surreal aspects of this unusual black comedy/mystery but also suggests the pastoral setting and presence of an “entertaining corpse.” A drawing by a fictional artist (played by John Forsythe) likewise figures into the plot.
Any film screened at IU Cinema may contain content that viewers find sensitive or upsetting. Visit our Audience Advisories page to learn more.
