Why Alfred Hitchcock glued leaves to trees for his most overlooked black comedy

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In the 1955 film The Trouble with Harry, a corpse appears on a Vermont hillside, sparking a series of bizarre, darkly comedic events. Hitchcock’s production faced unexpected challenges, including a lack of autumn foliage and a falling 500-pound camera, yet the director considered the film's score his personal favorite.

The Trouble with Harry, based on a 1949 novel by Jack Trevor Story, centers on the residents of Highwater, Vermont, who discover a dead body. Rather than calling the authorities, the townspeople—including a retired captain, an estranged wife, and a local artist—bury and unearth the corpse multiple times to avoid the humorless Deputy Sheriff Calvin Wiggs. The film maintains a macabre, sardonic tone, ultimately revealing that the death was caused by natural factors rather than the various accidental blows the characters believe they inflicted.

Production was fraught with logistical hurdles. Filming began in September 1954, but the expected vibrant autumn foliage had already vanished, forcing the crew to manually glue leaves onto trees. Persistent rain necessitated moving several scenes into a high school gymnasium, where a 500-pound camera nearly struck Hitchcock during a fall. Despite these difficulties, the film marked the beginning of a legendary partnership with composer Bernard Herrmann. Hitchcock later declared Herrmann's score for this film to be his absolute favorite among all his works.

Though the film is now a recognized part of Hitchcock's canon, it was a financial disappointment upon its initial 1955 release, earning only $3.5 million in the United States. It largely vanished from public view for nearly three decades until the Hitchcock estate negotiated a 1983 reissue with Universal Pictures. Critical reception at the time was polarized, ranging from praise for its "mellow merriment" to harsh dismissals. Today, it stands as a unique "comedie noire" that balances dark subject matter with a whimsical, off-beat sensibility.

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