The Man Who Knew Too Much [Includes Digital Copy] [4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray]

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock

Overview

The debate still rages as to whether Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much is superior to his own original 1934 version. This two-hour remake (45 minutes longer than the first film) features more stars, a lusher budget, and the plaintive music of Bernard Herrmann (who appears on-camera, typecast as a symphony conductor). Though the locale of the opening scenes shifts from Switzerland to French Morocco in the newer version, the basic plot remains the same. American tourists James Stewart and Doris Day are witness to the street killing of a Frenchman (Daniel Gelin) they've recently befriended. Before breathing his last, the murder victim whispers a secret to Stewart (the Cinemascope lens turns this standard closeup into a truly grotesque vignette). Stewart knows that a political assassination will occur during a concert at London's Albert Hall, but is unable to tell the police: his son (a daughter in the original) has been kidnapped by foreign agents to insure Stewart's silence. The original script for Man Who Knew too Much was expanded and updated by John Michael Hayes and Angus McPhail.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/31/2023
UPC:	0191329241097
Original Release:	1956
Rating:	PG
Source:	Universal Studios
Language:	English
Format:	Blu-ray
Sales rank:	10,849

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

James Stewart	Dr. Benjamin McKenna
Doris Day	Josephine Conway McKenna
Brenda de Banzie	Lucy Drayton
Bernard Miles	Edward Drayton
Ralph Truman	Inspector Buchanan
Daniel Gélin	Louis Bernard
Mogens Wieth	Ambassador
Alan Mowbray	Val Parnell
Hillary Brooke	Jan Peterson
Christopher Olsen	Hank McKenna
Reggie Nalder	Rien
Richard Wattis	Assistant Manager #1
Noel Willman	Woburn
Alix Talton	Helen Parnell
Yves Brainville	Police Inspector
Carolyn Jones	Cindy Fontaine
Abdelhaq Chraibi	Actor
Lou Krugman	Arab
Betty Baskcomb	Edna
Leo Gordon	Chauffeur
Pat Aherne	Actor,Handyman
Louis Mercier	French Policeman
Anthony Warde	French Police
Lewis Martin	Detective
Gladys Holland	Bernard's Girlfriend
John O'Malley	Uniformed Attendant
Peter Camlin	Headwaiter
Albert Carrier	French Policeman
Ralph Heff	Actor
John Marshall	Butler
Eric Snowden	Special Branch Officer
Edward Manouk	Actor
Donald Lawton	Desk Clerk
Patrick Whyte	Special Branch Officer
Mahin S. Shahrivar	Actor
Alex Frazer	Man
Allen Zeidman	Actor
Milton Frome	Actor
Walter Gotell	Guard
Frank Atkinson	Actor
Liddell Peddieson	Actor
Mayne Lynton	Actor
John Barrard	Taxidermist
Alexis Bobrinskoy	Premierminister
Janet Bruce	Actor
Naida Buckingham	Actor
Clifford Buckton	Sir Kenneth Clarke
Barbara Burke	Girlfriend of the Assassin
Pauline Farr	Actor
Harry Fine	Edington
Wolfgang Preiss	Aide to Foreign Prime Minister
George Howe	Ambrose Chappel Sr.
Harold Kasket	Butler
Barry Keegan	Patterson
Lloyd Lamble	General Manager of Albert Hall
Enid Lindsey	Lady Clarke
Janet Macfarlane	Actor
Leslie Newport	Actor
Elsa Palmer	Actor
Arthur Ridley	Actor
Alma Taylor	Box Office Woman
Guy Verney	Footman
Peter Williams	Polizist vor Kirche
Richard Wordsworth	Ambrose Chappel Jr.
Barbara Howitt	Self - Soloist
Frank Albertson	Taxidermist
Walter Bacon	Church Member
Frank Baker	Royal Albert Hall Attendee
Hyma Beckley	Albert Hall Audience
Paul Beradi	Embassy Guest
Eumenio Blanco	Arab
Arline Bletcher	Church Member
Lovyss Bradley	Church Member
Bernard Herrmann	The Orchestra Conductor,Composer
Robert Burks	Actor
John Michael Hayes	Actor
andere	Actor
Alexis Brobinskoy	Actor
Branda De Banzie	Actor
Daniel Gelin	Actor
Ray Evans	Composer
Jay Livingston	Composer

Technical Credits

John Michael Hayes

Charles Bennett

Angus MacPhail

Alfred Hitchcock	Director,Producer
John Michael Hayes	Screenwriter
Charles Bennett	Screenwriter
John P. Fulton	Special Effects
Angus MacPhail	Screenwriter
Herbert Coleman	Producer,Director
Farciot Edouart	Special Effects
Paul Franz	Sound Effects
Gene Garvin	Sound Effects
Frank Carroll	Sound Effects
Henry Keener	Sound Effects
William Pillar	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

British-born director Alfred Hitchcock made two versions of this taut espionage thriller. The first served as his international breakthrough in 1934, and while the debate goes on over whether or not his 1956 Hollywood remake is better, there is no denying that the later, bigger-budgeted take finds the master at the height of his powers. After an American doctor (James Stewart) and his wife (Doris Day) accidentally stumble onto an assassination plot while vacationing in Morocco, their young son is kidnapped in an attempt to keep them from talking. Day's character is a singer, and with typical ingenuity Hitchcock makes her voice an integral part of the action. In the famous concert hall scene, her screams as she witnesses a stabbing coincide with the orchestra's crashing cymbals; later she sings the film's Academy Award-winning song, "Que Sera Sera" in a desperate ploy to locate her son.

Barnes & Noble - Kryssa Schemmerling

The 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much is so polished a production that it gleams. That very fact may bother some, who would prefer a bit more grit in their filmmaking or who feel that the wheels that drive the plot mechanisms may be well oiled but are also a bit too visible, but most viewers won't really care. If Man misses being an absolute classic, it's so close -- and so entertaining -- that it doesn't really matter. Hitchcock was in wonderful form here, stacking the thriller deck with incredible skill and aplomb, and coming up with a stunning and unforgettable 12-minute climax that is played without a single word of dialogue. (Indeed, the climax is so draining that the action that follows it comes across as a bit drawn out.) James Stewart is marvelous, capturing both the naïve innocence of his middle-American doctor and the tortured tenseness of a man in a crisis, and playing each of his scenes with nary a false note. If Doris Day is a wee bit forced in her big scenes, she's still more than adequate, and she does some truly impressive nuanced work early in the film that is important in establishing her character. The leads also have a special chemistry between them, slightly sexual but more like that which develops among two people who love and care for each other but also have their differences. Man is engrossing, intriguing, and captivating, and a film that has many surprises even on repeated viewings.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler