The Man Who Knew Too Much

Alfred Hitchcock's original 1930s version of The Man Who Knew Too Much is probably lesser known than his Hollywood remake from the 1950s but perhaps just as good. The remake, featuring Doris Day and James Stewart, is very much in keeping with Hitchcock's colourful and watertight 'big' suspense films from the 1950s, whereas this version from the 1934 is much darker and grittier in tone and very much in keeping with the director's other mid-309s espionage thrillers Secret Agent and Sabotage.

The Man Who Knew Too Much concerns a British couple holidaying in the Swiss Alps. Through a chance meeting with an undercover French spy they find themselves privvy to sensitive information. It's information that will put them in danger after said spy is suddently assassinated. Hitchcock tightens the screws by having the couple's daughter kidnapped by the killers and held as collateral, and Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence find themselves thrust into the midst of a political powderkeg back in London as a result. Unable to turn to the authorities, they might just be a high-ranking European diplomat's only salvation as the assassin's continue their dastardly plans.

I can't say I enjoyed this version as much as the North African-flavoured remake but it has a certain desperation to it that feels a bit more realistic. The famous climactic scene at the Royal Albert Hall is more effectively realised in the James Stewart-Doris Day version, but this 1930s version does have the incomparable Peter Lorre in one of his first English-language roles as a villain. There's also a pretty cool street shoot-out that's based on the real life London street siege known as the Battle of Stepney.

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Charles Bennett and D. B. Wyndham-Lewis, with input from Edwin Greenwood, A. R. Rawlinson and Emlyn Williams.
KEY ACTORS: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre, Hugh Wakefield, Pierre Fresnay, Nova Pilbeam.

RELATED TEXTS:
- Alfred Hitchcock remade his own film under the same title, The Man Who Knew Too Much, twenty years later in 1956. This American-financed version is often considered one of his core classics from his golden period in the 1950s.
- Also see Hitchcock's other 1930s British espionage films: Secret Agent, The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes and Sabotage.
- Bill Murray starred in a spoof-spy film called The Man Who Knew Too Little in 1997. It wasn't very successful.