Movie Review: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

In 1956, Alfred Hitchcock — my favorite director and perhaps the most accomplished in the history of Hollywood — decided to do something very strange. He decided to remake his own movie.

I don’t remember much about 1934’s The Man Who Knew Too Much. I remember liking Peter Lorre in it, but I also like Peter Lorre in every movie he’s in. Hitchcock apparently chose this movie to remake because he felt that it was the one that’d be the easiest to improve on. And with a more modern look to it and a much bigger budget, this movie is certainly better.

The plot involves two Americans on vacation in Morocco who have their kid get kidnapped as part of an international assassination plot. Hitchcock had a fascination with sticking the everyman into a larger than life story, and this movie benefits from not only James Stewart (Vertigo, It’s a Wonderful Life) as the everyman Ben McKenna, but Doris Day (Pillow Talk) as his wife, Jo, which is nearly an equally big role. She even sings an Oscar winning song in it — “Que Sera, Sera,” — though it’s in this movie a bit too much.

The climax is fantastic, but it’s not even my favorite part of this movie. This movie has maybe my favorite sequence that Hitchcock ever directed. I can’t find a good video of it on YouTube, though I know I’ve seen one in the past, but it’s just a simple scene of walking, and somehow, Hitchcock is able to make it into the most suspenseful thing ever.

This is one of the rare Hitchcock movies that I don’t think gets better every time I see it (I think I’ve seen it four times now), but it’s still very good. It’s not up there with his absolute best work, but it’s quite good. It’s like a slower paced North by Northwest, that doesn’t have the charisma of Cary Grant. It has a climax for the ages, though, and a nice adventurous feel to it.

Rating: 9/10