The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

The Man Who Knew too Much is Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 remake of his own 1934 film. Despite being a remake, this film has quite a few differences. The film tells the story of a doctor (James Stewart) and his wife (Doris Day) vacationing in Morocco with their son (Christopher Olsen). While in Morocco they meet a few strange people and witness a murder. Just before the murdered man dies, he whispers a secret about an assassination plot to James Stewart who know is a man who knows too much. Their son is kidnapped and Stewart is told he must tell the secret to no one or his son will be in grave danger. While the film has its differences from the original (this starts in Morocco as opposed to Switzerland, the kidnapped child is a son this time, etc.), it's basically the same idea. While Hitchcock prefers the remake, I thought this film was a little long (it's 45 minutes longer) and confusing at times. The whole kidnapping and why Stewart was given this information is never really explained.

The acting in this film is pretty good. James Stewart and Doris Day are both superb. Other than that, nobody else is all that memorable. While Hitchcock films tend to have interesting characters in minor roles, nobody in here was all that great. The biggest weakness in this film was a good villain. The original The Man Who Knew Too Much had the great Peter Lorre playing the villain while this film's villain wasn't really focused on one person and none of them were all that memorable.

Also notable for this film is the music. Like the original film, this film has its climax at London's Albert Hall. There is a long sequence at Albert Hall that runs around 10 minutes where not a single word is spoken. This film is rather well-done. Also important is Doris Day's singing. In this film she sings, several times, the song "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" which won an Oscar for best original song.

While this film was pretty good at times, it wasn't quite as clear as the original and ran a little too long. The lack of a Peter Lorre type character was especially disappointing. Overall, this is just a decent film.

74.5/100
C
UP NEXT: From one great director to another, Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon.

I watched this today...

I sort of did this backwards, watching the remake before the original, but oh well...

I was a little disappointed in this film. I liked the other Jimmy Stewart/Hitchcock movie that I saw, Rope and I was really looking forward to this. It started out very slow, but it did get interesting at times. The last 30 minutes or so was really good, but it was too little, too late. The acting was really great as I've never seen Stewart do a bad job. Doris Day was really good in her role too. It had it's great moments as well as boring and confusing moments. Overall, it was just "average."

73.5/100

UP next: The original 1934 version of this movie.

That drops the score half a point. I can barely remember the original but I think it's a lot better. I gave it a much better score.

catbox_9 wrote:

That drops the score half a point. I can barely remember the original but I think it's a lot better. I gave it a much better score.

Yeah, I'll have to wait at least a week before I watch it though. I really got lucky TCM showed both of them within a few days.