The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

A family vacationing in Morocco accidentally stumble on to an assassination plot and the conspirators are determined to prevent them from interfering.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

John Michael Hayes (screenplay), Charles Bennett (based on a story by),

Stars:

James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda de Banzie

Won 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
James Stewart	...	Dr. Benjamin McKenna
Doris Day	...	Josephine Conway McKenna
Brenda de Banzie	...	Lucy Drayton
Bernard Miles	...	Edward Drayton
Ralph Truman	...	Inspector Buchanan
Daniel Gélin	...	Louis Bernard (as Daniel Gelin)
Mogens Wieth	...	Ambassador
Alan Mowbray	...	Val Parnell
Hillary Brooke	...	Jan Peterson
Christopher Olsen	...	Hank McKenna
Reggie Nalder	...	Rien
Richard Wattis	...	Assistant Manager
Noel Willman	...	Woburn
Alix Talton	...	Helen Parnell
Yves Brainville	...	Police Inspector

Storyline

While attending a medical conference in Paris, American physician Dr. Ben McKenna, his wife, retired musical theater actress and singer Jo McKenna née Conway, and their adolescent son Hank McKenna decide to take a side trip to among other places Marrekesh, French Morocco. With a knife plunged into his back, Frenchman Louis Bernard, who the family met earlier in their bus ride into Marrakesh and who is now masquerading as an Arab, approaches Ben, cryptically whispering into Ben's ears that there will be an attempted assassination in London of a statesman, this news whispered just before Bernard dies. Ben is reluctant to provide any information of this news to the authorities because concurrently Hank is kidnapped by British couple, Edward and Lucy Drayton, who also befriended the McKennas in Marrakesh and who probably have taken Hank out of the country back to England. Whoever the unknown people the Draytons are working for have threatened to kill Hank if Ben divulges any information ...

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Plot Keywords:

assassination | morocco | american | bus | singer | 

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Taglines:

A little knowledge can be a deadly thing!

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Genres:

Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French Arabic

Release Date:

1 June 1956 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much

Filming Locations:

Avenue Bab Jdid, Marrakech, Morocco

Box Office

Budget:

$2,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Filwite Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.50 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Many of the Moroccan extras had been mistakenly informed that they would only be paid if they were actually visible in the film. This led to a lot of pushing and shoving to get close to the camera until the crew explained to them that they would be paid no matter what.

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Goofs

In Marrakech, when Dr. McKenna and Jo go to the police headquarters, he sits behind the desk and she sits at the corner of the desk. In the next shot they are sitting side by side.

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Quotes

[to Louis Bernard]
Hank McKenna: If you ever get hungry, our garden back home is full of snails. We tried everything to get rid of them. We never thought of a Frenchman!

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Crazy Credits

Partly because the rights to this film were acquired from Paramount by Universal,the Paramount VistaVision fanfare is played over the opening Universal logo. This is the way it is currently (2005) shown on television. in the re-release version (1984).

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Connections

Referenced in The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)

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Soundtracks

"Storm Cloud Cantata"
(1934)
By Arthur Benjamin and D.B. Wyndham-Lewis (as D. B. Wyndham-Lewis)
Performed by London Symphony Orchestra (as London Symphony Orchestra)
Conducted by Bernard Herrmann
Covent Garden Chorus and Barbara Howitt, soloist

User Reviews

A Highly Entertaining Thriller

Many reviewers seem to prefer the original version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, which I have not had the opportunity to view. By itself, the '56 version is a very well done film. The run of mid-to-late fifties Hitchcock films (including "Rear Window", "Dial M For Murder", "Vertigo", and "To Catch A Thief", as well as this film) is one of my favorite periods in his career. In The Man Who Knew Too Much, Jimmy Stewart throws himself vigorously into his role as always. Doris Day is very believable in the role of an atypical Hitchcock blond. I thought there was nothing fake about her performance. Her character may not have been written as strongly as the original, but she's definitely not reduced to the role of a passive, "Yes, dear", pretty thing on Jimmy Stewart's arm.

There were some really clever lines written for Hank (the couple's son who later gets kidnapped) in the opening scene on the bus- it's too bad Christopher Olsen read them so woodenly. It's rare to see a good performance from a child actor in the 50s, though. Most of the rest of the supporting actors in this film were very competent, though- most notably the assassin (played by Reggie Nalder).

Some little touches that make this film undeniably Hitchcockian- the use of non-English dialog, especially French (something Hitch did on a much larger scale in "To Catch A Thief"); the use of foreboding, Arabic music in the hotel when the assassin appears; Stewart and Day talking to each other in the church, singing their words to the tune of the hymn; the Albert Hall scene, specifically showing the musicians and the assassin's accomplice following the score, building up tension, as well as the percussionist getting the cymbals ready; and finally the assassin's gun as it appears from behind the curtain. It moves so slowly and precisely that it must have been done mechanically (an effect Hitch used at the end of "Spellbound", also).

All in all, The Man Who Knew Too Much is a fun film to watch. It's not as deep or as heavily laden with symbolism as some of his films ("Vertigo", "Strangers on a Train"), but all the same it is one of my top five Hitchcock masterpieces.