Search - The Man Who Knew Too Much on DVD

Content Advisory: Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1934 DVD Release: 07/24/1999 Format: DVD - Black and White Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: Japanese, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 15 mins Studio: Delta Total Copies: 66 Genres: Spy Film, Thriller, Psychological Thriller See Also: Alfred Hitchcock Collection, Vol. 3: The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Man Who Knew Too Much

The first film version of The Man Who Knew too Much proved to be the international "breakthrough" film for British director Alfred Hitchcock, transforming him from merely a talented domestic filmmaker to a worldwide household name. While vacationing in Switzerland, Britons Leslie Banks and Edna Best befriend jovial Frenchman Pierre Fresnay. Not long afterward, Fresnay is murdered. He whispers a secret in Banks' ear before expiring. This is witnessed by several sinister foreign agents, who kidnap Banks' daughter Nova Pilbeam to keep him from revealing what he knows: That a diplomat will be assassinated during a concert at London's Albert Hall. Unable to turn to the police, Banks desperately attempts to rescue his child himself, still hoping to prevent the assassination. The film's now-famous setpieces include the "Siege of Sidney Street" re-creation and the climactic clash of cymbals at Albert Hall, followed by the crucial scream of Edna Best. German film star Peter Lorre made his English-speaking debut in The Man Who Knew Too Much, though he was still monolingual in 1934 and had to learn his lines phonetically. Written by A. R. Rawlinson, Charles Bennett, D.B. Wyndham Lewis, Emlyn Williams and Edwin Greenwood (an impressive lineup for a 75-minute film!), Man Who Knew Too Much was remade by Hitchcock himself in 1956. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Leslie Banks - Bob Lawrence
Edna Best - Jill Lawrence
Peter Lorre - Abbott
Frank Vosper - Ramon Levine
Hugh Wakefield - Clive

Alfred Hitchcock thought so much of the plot of his 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much, and so little of what he'd done with it, that it was the only one of his movies that he ever remade, in a much longer and slower moving version two decades later, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. His judgment has always seemed unfair, given that he had very little money to spend on the first version, and that he was breaking new ground at almost every turn with the 1934 version (including setting new levels of violence in the final shootout). There are also several excellent performances in the movie, including Peter Lorre's first in an English-language film; and, of course, it has the beautifully staged Royal Albert Hall assassination scene to recommend it (much of the setting for which is a total illusion), along with the potency of the political aspects of the plot and some piercingly dark humor. That earlier film, mostly thanks to Hitchcock's having bought it up in order to remake it, fell out of copyright in America and has no official distributor (though, presumably, the Hitchcock estate would have first claim on the best materials). This DVD is one of perhaps a dozen versions of the film that are out on the market, no worse than any of them and perhaps slightly better than most. It is intact, and the sound is all there and well balanced, which has always been one problem with British movies of this vintage that are not in authorized distribution. And the contrasts are steady and the picture quality is consistent. The problem is that the image never gets past an annoying level of softness -- certain details resolve while others remain stubbornly out of reach of the eye and the technology. A proper 35 mm source would reveal a lot more to the eye, whereas this one will occasionally make viewers wonder if their eyesight is going. The quality of this release is almost equal to that of the best laserdisc that was ever released on the movie, without the problems of laser-rot or the inconvenience of having to change sides, and at about a quarter of the cost. In its defense, the packaging includes reasonably full credits and the 18 chapters devoted to the movie are well chosen and break it down very nicely into its major plot points and scenes. As usual with this series of DVDs, the coda provided by actor Tony Curtis -- whose sole connection to Hitchcock is simply that he was once married to Janet Leigh -- is totally irrelevant. The menu, which must be accessed to open, is fairly easy to navigate, and for reasons best known to themselves, the producers have included the trailer from the 1942 Universal film Saboteur as a bonus. With Robert Cummings in character addressing the audience, it does (as do most Hitchcock trailers) add new wrinkles to the presentation of the film, and it also looks better than some stretches of The Man Who Knew Too Much. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide