Main Cast: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre, Frank Vosper, Hugh Wakefield
Release Year: 1934
Country: UK
Run Time: 75 minutes
Plot
The first film version of The Man Who Knew too Much proved to be the international "breakthrough" film for British director Alfred Hitchcock, transforming him from merely a talented domestic filmmaker to a worldwide household name. While vacationing in Switzerland, Britons Leslie Banks and Edna Best befriend jovial Frenchman Pierre Fresnay. Not long afterward, Fresnay is murdered. He whispers a secret in Banks' ear before expiring. This is witnessed by several sinister foreign agents, who kidnap Banks' daughter Nova Pilbeam to keep him from revealing what he knows: That a diplomat will be assassinated during a concert at London's Albert Hall. Unable to turn to the police, Banks desperately attempts to rescue his child himself, still hoping to prevent the assassination. The film's now-famous setpieces include the "Siege of Sidney Street" re-creation and the climactic clash of cymbals at Albert Hall, followed by the crucial scream of Edna Best. German film star Peter Lorre made his English-speaking debut in The Man Who Knew Too Much, though he was still monolingual in 1934 and had to learn his lines phonetically. Written by A. R. Rawlinson, Charles Bennett, D.B. Wyndham Lewis, Emlyn Williams and Edwin Greenwood (an impressive lineup for a 75-minute film!), Man Who Knew Too Much was remade by Hitchcock himself in 1956. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Though Alfred Hitchcock would remake the movie himself in 1956 with a bigger budget, the original 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much is arguably a more historically significant and aesthetically interesting film. It was Hitchcock's first true international hit. Though he wouldn't have a major success in America until The Lady Vanishes, Man and the subsequent The 39 Steps helped establish the director's distinctive style and lay the groundwork for his popularity. Along with Hitchcock's trademark blend of suspense and humor and blurring of the normal and abnormal, the film also features his characteristically grand showpieces, most memorably the recreation of the true-life "Sidney Street Siege" and the famous Albert Hall scene. The film was also significant as German actor Peter Lorre's first English-language part. Having fled Nazi Germany in 1933, Lorre had to learn his lines phonetically, but he steals the film as the cruel but melancholic bad guy, and his difficulties with English barely show. The actor would go on to give memorable turns in such notable Hollywood productions as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Nova Pilbeam - Betty Lawrence; Pierre Fresnay - Louis Bernard; George Curzon - Gibson; Cicely Oates - Nurse Agnes; D.A. Clarke-Smith - Insp. Binstead; Celia Lovsky; Henry Oscar - Dentist
Credit
Alfred Junge - Art Director, Peter Proud - Art Director, Alfred Hitchcock - Director, Hugh Stewart - Editor, Arthur Benjamin - Composer (Music Score), Louis Levy - Musical Direction/Supervision, Curt Courant - Cinematographer, Michael Balcon - Producer, Alfred Junge - Set Designer, Peter Proud - Set Designer, Edwin Greenwood - Screenwriter, D.B. Wyndham-Lewis - Screenwriter, A.R. Rawlinson - Screenwriter, Emlyn Williams - Screenwriter, Charles Bennett - Screenwriter
