The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) 

Notable cast/crew: Leslie Banks as Bob Lawrence.  Edna Best as Jill Lawrence.  Peter Lorre as Abbott.  Nova Pilbeam as Betty Lawrence.

Running time: 75 minutes

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Plot: At a sporting competition in the Alps, the Lawrence family watches their friend Louis Bernard compete in ski jumping and Jill compete in trap shooting.  While dancing with Louis after the competition, Jill is standing next to him when an assassin shoots him through the window.  Before he dies, he tells her to have Bob take the brush from his room to the British consul.  Bob finds a note inside the brush handle, and he's confronted by one of his wife's competitors as he leaves the room who demands that he "hand it over".  Before Bob can reply, the police arrive demanding to know why he was in Bernard's room.  They lead him away for questioning where he finds his wife is already being interrogated.  A messenger arrives with a note for Bob which he rushes into the next room to show to Jill.  They are warned to keep quiet or they will never see their daughter again.

Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo

They return to England and decide to investigate on their own since they can't go to the police.  The Foreign Office tells them Louis was their agent, and he was killed because he had uncovered an assassination plot.  The Foreign Office is concerned the assassination could trigger another world war.  They want to help, but the Lawrences are too afraid of losing their daughter to talk.  The kidnappers call, and the Foreign Office traces it to Wapping which matches Bob's note.  Bob finds a dentist's office that matches the name on the note and proceeds to investigate.

While in the dentist's chair, Bob hears the watch chime of a man who was in the Alps with him as the man passes through the room.  The dentist is one of the assassins.  Bob struggles with him and gasses him with his own anesthesia then quickly dons his jacket and glasses.  He poses as the dentist with the dentist's light shining past his face to disguise him as he listens to the spies' plans.  He follows them to a cult temple: The Tabernacle of the Sun.  The logo matches a symbol on Bernard's note.

The cult is a front for the spy ring, and Bob has walked into the thick of it.  Bob tricks one of them into admitting his daughter is there, and, when one of them yells out not to use guns in case someone calls the police, a chair fight breaks out.  One of the spies is the sharpshooter from Jill's competition.  He's the trigger man on the assassination.  During the fight, Bob sees a ticket to the Royal Albert Hall in the man's pocket and deduces this is where the killing will take place.  He yells this information to his friend, Clive, who had accompanied him inside, and Clive escapes through the window to warn Jill and the authorities.

The authorities don't believe Clive leaving Jill to the foil the plot.  The plan is for Ramon to fire his gun at the crescendo of the performance so that no one will hear the rifle shot.  Jill runs into Ramon at the Hall, and he gives her a pin Betty was wearing to reinforce that she needs to remain silent because they have her daughter.  At the last second, Jill stands and screams causing Ramon to flinch and miss his target.  He only wounds him.  Ramon exits thinking he has completed his mission, but upon entering the temple, finds the radio reporting the unsuccessful attempt.

The police descend on the temple and line up sharpshooter teams.  A firefight ensues with everyone but Abbott and Ramon getting killed.  Bob frees Betty and leads her to the roof, but Ramon shoots him leaving Ramon and Betty alone.  Jill grabs a rifle and kills Ramon.  Abbott's watch gives him away, and the police kill him before he can shoot anyone else.  The Lawrences are reunited with all safe.

MacGuffin: The assassination

Hitchcock cameo: None

Hitchcock themes: 

• Blondes
• Likable criminal
• Suspense
• Murder

Verdict: This film marked a run of six thrillers that saved Hitchcock's reputation and career in England.  He would later remake this with the same basic plot but changing many of the details.  Peter Lorre is fantastic as the head of the spy ring, and this was his first English film.  Some sources say he learned his part phonetically as he wasn't fluent yet.  The gunfight at the end was based on a real shootout that occurred in London called the Sidney Street Siege.

The music is a crucial part of the movie, and one thing you don't notice at first is there is no score to the movie.  All of the music in the movie is "source music" which is music the characters themselves hear: someone singing, music on a record player or radio, the orchestra performing.  The dramatic orchestra piece was composed specifically for the film by Arthur Benjamin.  Bernard Herrmann was offered the chance to write something different for the remake, but he chose to re-use it because he thought Benjamin's piece fit the scene too perfectly to replace.

This is a very plot-driven piece so most of the casting isn't notable.  There isn't anyone miscast, but most of the parts have little to do but advance the story.  Lorre is the exception.  He had gained fame in Fritz Lang's M playing a child-killer so there is some tension here where the audience of the time would have connected him to that role and wondered if the child would survive this film.  Once we're done with Hitchcock, we'll be covering several Lorre films from later in his career including M.  

Overall, this is a good rebound from the lesser efforts Hitchcock had been cranking out.  There is a nice touch, very subtly done, where the story foreshadows the climax with the shooting competition.  Jill is distracted at the beginning of the film which causes her to miss, and it is her distraction in the Hall that causes Ramon to miss.  The suspense rises as the song climaxes, and there's even a great moment where you think the crescendo has come with even the actors jumping up but is nothing more than Hitchcock tweaking the audience.  Lorre channels the director's humor here by waving his hand at the others telling them to calm down; they've jumped the gun, so to speak.

Out of five bananas, I give it:

Next review: The 39 Steps