MovieChat Forums > The Trouble with Harry (1955) Discussion > How could they get away with it?

How could they get away with it?

posted 19 years ago by josta59
13 replies | jump to latest

I was with them until the very end. Won't the deputy sheriff recognize the shoes that were stolen from his car when he sees them on the corpse that they've decided to report to him the next day? He already suspects that they're up to something, and he's already pretty sure that someone has been killed. Marlowe drew a picture of the dead man's face, which Wiggs will recognize right away. After all the thinking-through that they've done, how can they possibly think they'll get away with this new scheme? Of course, it's what they should have done in the first place. Have they driven themselves mad? What's an audience to think? Am I missing something?

"Thank you for a lovely evening."

[–] tad58 18 years ago

Well, what is it that they got away with? The only thing they could be charged with is obstruction of justice or possibly charges related to mishandling a body. Remember the cause of death was natural causes.

[–] andiepoo 18 years ago

Yes, that may be so, but I expected more from the Deputy Sheriff. I mean, if he could connect all that evidence, etc., wouldn't he also notice when they do put the body back, that the clothes seem rather clean while the body looks like it's been buried and dug up thrice?

[–] DoctorStrangelove 18 years ago

And of course the Deputy would recognize the body as the same man from the drawing.... d'oh!

Last Seen:
The Trouble with Harry - 7/10

[–] lrdanth 17 years ago

The body was in the bathtub, perhaps they cleaned it up. Small town Vermont 1955 Forensics, were not what they are now. My sisters any myself watch this film every Thanksgiving.

[–] zap644 17 years ago

What evidence?

The Sheriff can suspect all he wants, but there's no case. There's no murder. There's just a bunch of suspicious activity.

And as someone else pointed out, for a crime like this, he immediately sought help from the state police. If he wants to push the issue, the state police will come around, see a man dead of natural causes with only stories of people acting funny and a bum that claims he took some shoes (that nobody can find) off of a dead man.

The state police will think the sheriff's a bumbling Barney Fife and see that there's no crime and have a good laugh at his expense.

[–] jyanks 16 years ago

The CSI teams of today would rip their story wide open!

[–] bing-57 14 years ago

> The CSI teams of today would rip their story wide open!

Yeah ... if this was a television show. In real life CSI teams are overworked, sloppy, and oblivious. They don't hit the streets to investigate things. They just run the lab tests and forget about it.

Once they determine Harry died of natural causes the case would be closed and they'd move onto the next case.

Again, life is not like a TV show.

--
What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?

[–] John-367 12 years ago

Agreed.
You'll be lucky if a fingerprint guy even shows up in order to shrug, "that's a bad surface for prints".

[–] diarmid 18 years ago

If that question had been answered I think it might well have detracted from the film. Why should this hare-brained scheme be any less absurd than the others? Or, for that matter, why should it be the last twist in the plot? The film has to end, but does (can?) the story? We have an ending with everyone happy (except, perhaps, Harry and the Deputy), and an implied happy resolution. The detail of how it works is as beyond our ken as the explanation for why a remote rural common was as busy as Clapham Junction or why no one was phased at the sight of a dead body there.

[–] marriedminnie 17 years ago

Unless I'm missing something, the Deputy was from a small town where probably nobody wanted his job. He probably didn't even have the training but only the desire to be a detective. Also, he relied on the State Police to investigate this matter, he felt it was his duty to investigate himself but he didn't really know what he was doing. Refer to the painting of Harry, John Forsyth's character made a mockery of the painting by altering the picture and the deputy just lets it go with cake on his face.

There was no surprise that everyone involved would have got off scott-free if there was a murder which as indicated earlier (died of natural causes).

I thought this was a very personal favorite film of Hitchcock even though not mentioned. This film depicts the Captain and the humour so much as Hitchcock that it's uncanny. It feels like I'm seeing Hitchcock more than just a cameo. "Shadow of a Doubt" was mentioned as his personal favorite but I think the 5 lost films inherited by Patricia has some very personal connection and didn't think people were ready for it until later years. Just my opinion of course.

[–] sourcery-1 17 years ago

You also have to remember that, in Hitchcock films, the police are bumbling fools most of the time.

[–] NewID 15 years ago

I see that as an open end and it makes me think of the funny situations that will be going on in town. Maybe they will always tease Sheriff and make fun of him with false hints.

[–] NoahBody 12 years ago

Much like real life.