Kidnapping- Hitchcock Style

The Man Who Knew Too Much is one of the most chillingly suspenseful films I have ever seen. A remake by the same name and the same director, this film is the more impressive of the two. Doris Day and James Stewart act together their only time in very rare dramatic roles. Alfred Hitchcock once again acquires the expertise screenwriter John Michael Hayes to create the screenplay. Although the same collaboration made Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, aside from starring the same leading man, is very difficult to compare.

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The Man Who Knew Too Much begins with a family, Jo Mckenna, a famous singer (played by Doris Day), Ben McKenna, a doctor, and their son Hank, enjoying a comfortable, leisurely vacation to the French Morocco. On their final destination to Marrakesh before returning to the states, they meet a frenchman on a bus named Louis Bernard, who quickly befriends them and invites them to dinner that night. When a sudden phone call forces Louis to cancel their dinner plans, Jo and Ben go anyway. At the restaurant, they meet an English family who remember Jo from when she performed in London. They soon become friends and agree to go shopping together in the market the next day.

When they arrive at the market the next day, Ben is approached by a man, dressed as an arab, slowly dying from a fatal stab wound to the back.
"Mr. Mckenna, I am Louis Bernard...Listen to me. A man... a statesman....is to be killed....assassinated....soon...very soon.....tell them in London...to try Ambrose Chappel."

Louis had been murdered, murdered because he found the family he was looking for, and they weren't American, they were English. After being summoned by the police, Lucy Drayton takes Hank back to the hotel while Jo and Ben go to be interviewed.

When Ben and Jo return to the hotel, Ben realizes that Hank had been kidnapped. After breaking the news to Jo, she becomes hysterical and must take sedatives to calm down. This particular scene is the most professional scene Doris Day has ever done in a film. Her feelings are genuine, as if her son had really been kidnapped.

Ben and Jo's task from now on is to find Hank, and figure out what horrible people did it and who is planning an assassination.

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The Man Who Knew To Much has all of the components needed for a superb movie. The screenwriting allows for very dramatic dialogue between all the characters. The directing is outstanding, especially since the movie was filmed on location in Marrakesh and London. There is even an academy award winning song involved. Doris sang this popular tune Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be) which won the Academy Award for best song in 1957. The actors were both in their primes, although Doris was slightly more popular at the time. Even then, she still allowed James to have top billing in the credits of the movie out of respect for him as an actor. This pair clicked immediately, allowing for true chemistry to shine on-screen and made the movie very believable and realistic.

This film has to best be described as the song heard towards the end of the movie, The Storm Cloud Cantata. It starts out slow, but gradually builds up until it reaches it's climax.........

With the crash of the cymbals and how it rocked the lives an American family.
-Seen after the credits, before the opening scene

©2002 myepinionis