The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

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.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Charles Bennett (by), D.B. Wyndham-Lewis (by) (as D.B. Wyndham Lewis)

Stars:

Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

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

Storyline

While holidaying in Switzerland, Lawrence and his wife Jill are asked by a dying friend, Louis Bernard, to get information hidden in his room to the British Consulate. They get the information, but when they deny having it, their daughter Betty is kidnapped. It turns out that Louis was a Foreign Office spy and the information has to do with the assassination of a foreign dignitary. Having managed to trace his daughter's kidnappers back to London, Lawrence learns that the assassination will take place during a concert at the Albert Hall. It is left to Jill, however, to stop the assassination.

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Plot Keywords:

key | foreign office | spy | dancing | dance | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English German Italian French

Release Date:

15 April 1935 (USA)

Also Known As:

El hombre que sabía demasiado

Filming Locations:

St. Moritz, Kanton Graubünden, Switzerland

Box Office

Budget:

£40,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gaumont British Picture Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (British Acoustic Film Full Range Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Producer C.M. Woolf hated this movie and only allowed it to be released as the bottom half of a double bill. Nevertheless, it won rave reviews.

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Goofs

The first time Mr. Lawrence smokes in the Tabernacle church, we never see him light his cigarette, yet it starts smoking.

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Quotes

Betty Lawrence: Mommy, can I stay out tonight?
Jill Lawrence: Oh, darling, ask me presently.
Betty Lawrence: Oh, say yes now. Just for luck.
Jill Lawrence: You little wretch.

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Connections

Featured in Paul Merton Looks at Alfred Hitchcock (2009)

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Soundtracks

Storm Clouds Cantata
(1934) (uncredited)
Music by Arthur Benjamin
Words by D.B. Wyndham-Lewis
Performed by London Symphony Orchestra
Under the direction of H. Wynn Reeves

User Reviews

Hitch and the "Anarchist Revolt" of 1911 in London

In the novel, THE SECRET AGENT, Joseph Conrad had dissected the world of anarchists, double agents and spies, and police in the East End of London of 1894, the year that an attempt to destroy the Greenwich Observatory occurred. Alfred Hitchcock used Conrad's novel for his film SABOTAGE in 1936. But two years earlier he did the film THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. It was the first of two films in which Peter Lorre was directed by him. It was also the only one of his movies that he remade complete with title. But he decided to use the film to film a scene from British criminal history - the January 1911 "Siege of Sidney Street".

There had been an incident in December 1910 when several Russian aliens were involved in a burglary in Houndsditch. The proceeds of their robberies (aside from supporting themselves) helped fund anti-Tsarist activities in Russia. They killed three constables in making their escape from the shop. They were eventually tracked down to a house on Sidney Street, and fired at the police who tried to get them to surrender. The Home Secretary of the day (a politician named Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill) sent out troops, sharp shooters, and artillery. The cannon set the house on fire, and the men found inside were found to be dead. The best account of the event is Donald Rumbelow's THE SIEGE OF SIDNEY STREET called THE HOUNDSDITCH MURDERS in Great Britain.

Here, instead of radicals (called anarchists in 1911) we have foreign conspirators planning an assassination in London of a foreign head of state. Peter Lorre is the leader. Leslie Banks and his family are on vacation to Switzerland. Banks witnesses the murder of a Frenchman (Pierre Fresney, a great French star of the period - this English film is a rarity for him). Fresney reveals the assassination plot to Banks, and Lorre and his associates kidnap his daughter (Nora Pilbeam) to keep his mouth shut. But the police are aware that he heard something from Fresney, and try to pressure him to talk.

So we watch Banks try to track down his daughter (and get captured himself) while his wife goes to the Albert Hall to see what she can do.

The finale of the film is based on the Siege - with some exceptions (one of the bobbies in the Houndsditch tragedy is shot and killed in the start of the movie's version of the incident). But Hitchcock maintains the suspense to the end, when the last villain is taken care of.

It's an interesting film - not a great one. And it is somewhat different from the 1956 remake.