The Man Who Knew Too Much [PG]

A family are vacationing in Switzerland when their friend is assassinated during a ballroom dance. His last request, they’re taking a very important piece of paper to the British Consul, thrusts them headlong into a horrible nightmare of spies, assassins, and anxieties when the husband carries out his friend’s dying wish only to discover that the perpetrators of his murder have kidnapped his daughter. Not wanting to cooperate with the secret agents to prevent the assassination of a European diplomat for fear of losing his daughter, Mr. Lawrence and his wife take it upon themselves to find the villains and save their Betty. 

Hitchcock remade this movie in 1956 (the version that makes it into The Book) starring James Stewart and Doris Day and I have to admit I was sort of excited to think that I’d knocked another one off the list…only to discover that it’s the remake I should have watched. Oh well, The Man Who Knew Too Much is a quick and quaint spy thriller that puts us in mind of Hitchcock’s earlier works. Set in his beloved England and absolutely filled to the brim with wit, manner, and quite possibly the greatest siege ever, it’s a great little movie despite the datedness of the black and white quality: we’re more in mind of Blackmail and Metropolis where the quality of the picture was a little more hazy and gauzy and not as chic as in later years. 

A family are vacationing in Switzerland when their friend is assassinated during a ballroom dance. His last request, they’re taking a very important piece of paper to the British Consul, thrusts them headlong into a horrible nightmare of spies, assassins, and anxieties when the husband carries out his friend’s dying wish only to discover that the perpetrators of his murder have kidnapped his daughter. Not wanting to cooperate with the secret agents to prevent the assassination of a European diplomat for fear of losing his daughter, Mr. Lawrence and his wife take it upon themselves to find the villains and save their Betty. 

The script is rather quite wonderful. From beginning to end, it’s grounded on snappy British wit and punctual timing, making everything about it somewhat dapper and formal; even the European gangsters and assassins. The first murder happens right within the first 10-15 minutes and from there, things just snowball until they reach their peak of the best siege ever! The villains are holding up in their building shooting at all of Scotland Yard down below and even though their circumstance are rather dire, they are so nonchalant and unfazed by the whole thing it’s actually really quite funny. 

Starring Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre, Frank Vosper, Hugh Wakefield, Nova Pilbeam, Pierre Fresnay, Cicely Oates, D.A. Clark-Smith, and George Curzon, The Man Who Knew Too Much is great little thriller filled with action, drama, suspense, and just that little bit of devilish comedy. Although it wasn’t the film I thought it was, I still quite enjoyed it.