The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Charles Bennett (by) and
D.B. Wyndham-Lewis (by) ...

Release Date:

15 April 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Public Enemy No. 1 of all the world...

Plot:

A man and his wife receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet.

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Dancing | Assassination Attempt | Shot To Death | Foreign Office

Cast

Leslie Banks	...	Bob Lawrence
Edna Best	...	Jill Lawrence
Peter Lorre	...	Abbott
Frank Vosper	...	Ramon
Hugh Wakefield	...	Clive
Nova Pilbeam	...	Betty Lawrence
Pierre Fresnay	...	Louis Bernard
Cicely Oates	...	Nurse Agnes
D.A. Clarke-Smith	...	Police Inspector Binstead (as D.A.Clarke Smith)
George Curzon	...	Gibson

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (British Acoustic Film Full Range Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:(Banned) (1935) | Finland:K-16 (1995) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:Approved (PCA #620) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Argentina:13 | Germany:12 | Sweden:(Banned) | UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (video rating) (1998)

Filming Locations:

Lime Grove Studios, Lime Grove, Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Company:

Gaumont British Picture Corporation

Trivia:

The film's producer, C.M. Woolf, hated the film and only allowed it to be released as the bottom half of a double bill. Nevertheless, it won rave reviews.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the scene where the man is shot through the window, near the beginning of the film, just before he is shot, he turns to face another man. At that time, you can see the beginnings of a blood stain on his shirt next to his lapel...before he’s shot!

Quotes:

Abbott: You know, to a man with a heart as soft as mine, there's nothing sweeter than a touching scene.
Bob Lawrence: Such as?
Abbott: Such as a father saying goodbye to his child. Yeah, goodbye for the last time. What could be more touching than that?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Paul Merton Looks at Alfred Hitchcock (2009) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Storm Clouds

Sending Hitch on his way

Although Alfred Hitchcock made several better films than this, including the 1956 remake, The Man Who Knew Too Much is a milestone film for the rotund master of suspense. It was the first film that got him noticed outside the United Kingdom, it led to bigger budgets for Hithcock to work with in British film industry and eventually to his departure for America.

Leslie Banks and Edna Best, Mr.and Mrs. upper class British couple on holiday in Switzerland with their adolescent daughter Neva Pilbeam. A Frenchman they befriend, Pierre Fresnay, is killed right in front of them on a dance floor and he whispers something to Banks about a planned assassination in London to occur shortly. The spies suspect what the dying Fresnay has said to Banks and grab Pilbeam to insure the silence of her parents.

The rest of this short (75 minute) feature is Banks and Best trying to both foil the assassination and get their daughter back. At the climax Best's skill at skeet shooting becomes a critical factor in the final confrontation with the villains.

Peter Lorre made his English language debut in The Man Who Knew Too Much and was very effective with the limited dialog he had. I've often wondered why Hitchcock never used Lorre more in some of his later features.

Although the 1956 version has far better production values, this version still holds up quite well and is worth a look.