  the trouble with harry is a 1955 american black comedy film directed by alfred hitchcock. the screenplay by john michael hayes was based on the 1950 novel by jack trevor story. it starred edmund gwenn and john forsythe; shirley maclaine and jerry mathers co-starred, both in their first film roles. the trouble with harry was released in the united states on october 3, 1955, then re-released in 1984 once the distribution rights had been acquired by universal pictures. the action in the trouble with harry takes place during a sun-filled autumn in the vermont countryside. the fall foliage and the beautiful scenery around the village, as well as bernard herrmann's light-filled score, all set an idyllic tone. the story is about how the residents of a small vermont village react when the dead body of a man named harry is found on a hillside. the film is, however, not really a murder mystery; it is essentially a romantic comedy with thriller overtones, in which the corpse serves as a macguffin. four village residents end up working together to solve the problem of what to do with harry. in the process the younger two (an artist and a very young, twice-widowed woman) fall in love and become a couple, soon to be married. the older two residents (a captain and a spinster) also fall in love. ==plot== the quirky but down-to-earth residents of the small hamlet of highwater, vermont, are faced with the freshly dead body of harry worp (philip truex), which has inconveniently appeared on the hillside above the town. the problem of who the person is, who was responsible for his sudden death, and what should be done with the body is "the trouble with harry". three of the main characters in the film each believe that he or she is the person who killed harry. captain wiles (edmund gwenn) is sure that he killed the man with a stray shot from his rifle while hunting, until it is shown he actually shot a rabbit. spunky and independent young jennifer rogers (shirley maclaine) is harry's 
1950s_comedy_films 1955_films American_black_comedy_films American_films American_mystery_films Comedy_thriller_films English-language_films Film_scores_by_Bernard_Herrmann Films_based_on_mystery_novels Films_directed_by_Alfred_Hitchcock Films_set_in_Vermont Films_shot_in_Vermont Paramount_Pictures_films