The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Film Review

When the occasion arose in 1956 for Alfred Hitchcock to remake one of his earlier British films, the one he quickly settled on was his 1934 suspense thriller, The Man Who Knew Too Much, which starred Leslie Banks, Edna Best and Peter Lorre.  In his subsequent interview with French film critic and filmmaker François Truffaut, Hitchcock described this first version as being the work of a talented amateur, whilst he judged his remake to be the work of a professional.  For years, admirers of the great director have been divided as to which of the two versions is superior.  The first is more atmospheric, more coherent and better structured; the remake is slicker, visually more effective, but perhaps a little too quirky for its own good.

It was the 1934 version of the film that assured Hitchcock's future as a filmmaker in England, after a somewhat precarious beginning whilst he was learning his metier.  It was also the film that brought him to the attention of American film producers, resulting in him being offered work in Hollywood before the end of the decade.  The 1956 version wasn't nearly as significant but it helped to assure the director's continued popularity in the United States, allowing him a greater measure of freedom on many of his subsequent films.

Pretty well from the outset, Hitchcock wanted James Stewart and Doris Day to star in the 1956 remake.  It was a decision that his bosses at Paramount Studios were quick to endorse since both actors had crowd appeal, although they did insist that Ms Day be given a number to sing in the film, to capitalise on her popularity as a singer and hence bolster the box office returns.   Hitchcock agreed unwillingly to this but he was pleased with the number that songwriters Jay Livingston and Ray Evans came up with: Que sera, sera.  The song, which serves the film extremely well, would win an Academy Award in 1956 and would top the music charts in the UK and the United States that year.

Hitchcock  always liked to include recognisable landmarks in his films and this one, as in the original version, features one of London's most famous, the Royal Albert Hall.  This monument actually turns out to be the crux of the whole film, providing the climactic set piece which is one of the best illustrations of Hitchcock's use of suspense.  The famous scene in which an assassination is narrowly thwarted is played without dialogue, the only sound being the music of a concert recital, which gradually builds to a terrifying crescendo.  For this sequence, the part of the conductor is played by Bernard Herrmann, who scored the music for this and several other Hitchcock films, most notably Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960).  Hitchcock gave Herrmann the opportunity to compose his own concert piece for this sequence but the composer declined.  Instead, he opted for a slightly re-orchestrated version of Arthur Benjamin's Storm Clouds cantata, which had featured in the original 1934 film.

Comparing the two versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much reveals not only how Hitchcock had refined his technique in the intervening years but also shows how his philosophy of filmmaking had altered.  By the 1950s, he had become far more concerned about meeting his audience's expectations than he was in his early years.  His time in Hollywood and taught him much about the psychology of audiences and he knew instinctively what worked and what didn't.  Yet whilst pleasing mainstream cinemagoers was very much in his game plan, so was making films that respected the aesthetics of cinema.  As he famously said, he saw no interest in merely showing photographs of people talking.  Hitchcock saw no contradiction in being an auteur and being a maker of popular movies.  This explains not only why he enjoyed unparalleled success in his own lifetime, but also why his films have endured and retained their popularity, delighting film enthusiasts and inspiring successive generations of filmmakers.

Film Synopsis

Whilst vacationing in Morocco, Dr Ben McKenna and his wife, Jo, make the acquaintance of a mysterious Frenchman, Louis Bernard.  Jo's initial suspicions about Bernard grow when he declines to dine with them one evening.  Instead, they dine with another pair of tourists, Mr and Mrs Drayton, who strike them as a perfectly respectable couple.  The next day, whilst visiting the market, Ben sees a man stabbed to death.  The victim is none other than Louis Bernard, disguised as a local.  Before he dies, Bernard whispers a last message to Ben, warning him of an imminent assassination in London.  Not long after this, Ben receives a telephone call from a stranger informing him that his young son, Hank, has been kidnapped.  Providing Ben keeps what he has learnt to himself, no harm will befall his son...