The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

Friday, October 5 - Sunday, October 7, 2012

35mm print

“Vintage Hitchcock, with sheer wit and verve masking an implausible plot that spins out of the murder of a spy (Fresnay) in an equally implausible Switzerland (all back-projected mountains), leaving a pair of innocent bystanders (Banks and Best) to track his secret – and their kidnapped daughter – in a dark and labyrinthine London. Where the remake had Doris Day maternally crooning with fateful foreboding, sharpshooting Best simply grabs a rifle and gets after the villains. Pacy, exciting, and with superb settings (taxidermist’s shop, dentist’s chair, mission chapel complete with gun-toting motherly body, shootout re-enacting the Sidney Street siege, terrific climax in the Albert Hall), it also has nice villainy from a scarred, leering Lorre (here making his British debut). At two-thirds the length of the remake, it’s twice the fun. (From an original story by Charles Bennett and DB Wyndham Lewis.” – Time Out (London)

• Country UK
• Rating NR
• Year 1934
• Running Time 75 minutes
• Director Alfred Hitchcock
• Cast Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre

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