The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda De Banzie, Daniel Gelin, Christopher Olsen; d. Alfred Hitchcock; A-

In 1934, Alfred Hitchcock directed and released one of his more popular British films, The Man Who Knew Too Much. It was a story about a British family vacationing in Switzerland, who are unexectedly are thrown into a world of espionage when the parents befrend a spy who is later killed and also gives the father an important message. As a result their daughter is kidnapped and the couple must go to London to save her. The Man Who Knew Too Much came inbetween a string of Hitchcock's classic British suspense/spy thriller films, such as The 39 Steps and Sabatoge, and while Hitchcock considered remaking The 39 Steps, as well as his early silent picture The Lodger, only The Man Who Knew Too Much was remade and released in 1956.

The film stars James Stewart and Doris Day as the American McKennas. Ben McKenna (Stewart) is a successful doctor in Indiana, and Jo McKenna (Day) is an famous former singer who left her job to marry Ben and start a family. The two have a son, Hank (Christopher Olsen). At the stsart of the picture the family is riding in a cramped bus headed toward Marrikech in French Morocco. Ben is sleeping, Jo is looking out the window, and Hank is running around the bus. When the bus hits a rock, Hank slips and falls and by accident pulls of an Arab woman's veil. Since it is a sin to have an Arab woman walking around without her veil in that country, her husband becomes offended and confronts the McKennas. The are unable to understand until a man (Daniel Gelin) gets up to talk to and calm down the man. Then, the translator, so to say, begins to have a friendly conversation with the McKennas, starting with explaining the significance of Hank pulling off the woman's veil. This man's name is Louis Bernard, a French man. He gives not much more information than that, but certainly gets plenty from Ben. From their conversastion Bernard has learned Ben's profession, where they live, where they were before they came to Morocco, and which hotel they are staying in. When they exit the bus in Marrikech and take a horse carrage to their hotel, Jo expresses concern and suspcion about Bernard, because he knows so much about them and they know so little of him. Ben dismisses Jo's concerns and makes a joke about her not being asked any questions. But Jo is still suspcious. When they leave the carrage to enter the hotel, Jo notices that an older couple (Brenda De Banzie and Bernard Miles) are staring suspciously at them, and thus thinks they are being followed. In the next scene, Jo is getting Hank ready for bead while dancing and singing "Whatever Will Be Will Be (Que Sera Sera)" with him. Louis Bernard is there and they are getting ready to go out to dinner with them. AFter she gets Hank into bed she begins to interrogate him again, but Bernard is still secretive. Unfortunatley, their plans are ruined when a man (Reggie Nalder) mysteriously appears at their door, looking for someone, and Bernard then calls someone on the phone, in French, and then states that he can not go to dinner with them. The McKennas go alone, then, but at the restaurant they run into the British Draytons, the same couple Jo spotted staring at them at the hotel. The couple turns out to be a very friendly, talkative couple who have come to Marrikech on assignment from the United Nations (they're farmers). The McKennas spot Bernard in the restaurant, though, when he enters with an attractive female partner. Ben gets upset, but is held back by Jo. But Bernard and his partner aren't talking about love... The next day, the Draytons and the McKennas are at the market place, where Hank enthusastically looks around at the entertainment in awe, and Ben and Jo have a conversation in "secret." The fun stops when Ben sees a dying Louis Bernard in makeup and a white cloth coming towards him in the market place. Bernard gives him a secret messege about a possible assasination of a diplomat that is going to happen very soon, and that he should "try Ambrose Chapel," before he dies there on the spot. And here is when the innocent, unspesecting McKennas are thrown into a world of espionage, as they find out that Bernard is a spy and their son has been kidnapped, by the Draytons no less...

The Man Who Knew Too Much is an entertaining espionage thriller, easily one of Hitchcock's best. While it lacks the art of some of his other films, in no way does the lack of art make this film bad. It benifits from being made during Hitchcock's peak at Paramount, where he worked normally with such great talents as cinematographer Robert Burks (whose cinematography in this film, as usual, is great), editor George Tomasini, costume designer Edith Head (who again makes more stunning costumes in this film), film composer Bernard Herrmann (this was his second score for Hitchcock, he also makes an appearance in this film), screenwriter John Michael Hayes, and James Stewart (his third film with Hitchcock. Their collaboration would end with Vertigo). All of them make superb contributions to this film, as does Doris Day, who probably gives the best performance in her career. Frequently associated with two-dementional, slapstick characters in movie musicals or comedies, Doris Day gives us a convincing, complex performance in The Man Who Knew Too Much as a unusual character in Hitchcock's films: A warm blonde. James Stewart again gives a good performance in front of Hitchcock's camera, his character again being different from the characters usually associated with Stewart. Ben McKenna is a man who knows too much for his own good, and thinks he knows it all. He often imposes his veiws or his ideas on other people, and thinks that he can be the hero. In the end, though, it is Jo who winds up being the hero as it is she who saves the diplomat's life and it is her voice that helps the couple locate Hank in the embassy. Her suspcions proove to be true all a long, but Ben acts as if he's made the discovery after he learns the truth about Bernard. Stewart meets his match in a Hitchcock picture with Day. The two have perfect chemistry together.

The thing that this film is most famous for is its remarkable, 12-minute sequence in London's Albert Hall. Here is where the assasination has been planned. The assassin is assigned to shoot the diplomat, who he has been strateigically placed across from, at the "clash of the cymbals" of "Storm Cloud Cantata" by Arthur Benjamin and O.B. Wyndham-Lewis, which is to be played there that night. The scene has absolutely no diolouge, just the music playing overhead while the actors speak to each other in words that can not be heard. The scene begins when Jo enters the theater, looking for the assasin, who approaches her, makes a comment, and then leaves. As she sees him exiting to the balcony, she also sees a Prime Minster entering, going to the balcony on the opposite side of the theater. When the music begins, Jo enters the concert hall, telling the manager that she's "looking for someone." What she does see is a assassination attempt folding before her eyes. She again becomes hysterical, not knowing what to do. Should she save the Prime Minster's life and risk the life of her son, or not save the Prime Minister and allow her boy to be saved? Ben enters the scene halfway through the cantana, being previously locked in the chapel. Ben frantically looks for Jo and tries to talk to the police, who won't listen to him. Finally, he tries to look for the assasin himself and single handedly stop the assasination. But it is Jo who saves the Prime Minister's life when she lets out a scream right before the cymbols. Ben is onl yable to thwart the assasin, as, when he tries to leave in a hurry, Ben stops him. The assisin, now trying to get away from Ben, falls backwards from the balcony to the crowd below and dies. This is an expertly directed and edited scene, full of suspence and drama. The musical peice selected was supurb, and both the scene and this version of the song are superior to that in the original. This scene is also noticable because it was the only appearance made by Bernard Herrmann on screen. He plays himself and conducts this version of the peice, but he has no lines.

I would definatley reccomend this film, even if you have not seen the original.

© Vert A Go Go Reviews 2001