The Man Who Knew Too Much
Short description
An American doctor, Ben McKenna, is vacationing in Morocco with his wife Jo, a well-known singer, and their young son Hank. During their trip they cross paths with a Frenchman, Louis Bernard, and an English couple, the Draytons. While the family is out in the market, Bernard staggers up to Ben, fatally wounded by a knife, and whispers something to him before dying. Ben soon learns that his son has been taken, and that silence about what Bernard told him is the price of the boy's safety. Unable to trust anyone around them, Ben and Jo try to find Hank while becoming entangled in an international conspiracy.
Alfred Hitchcock directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by John Michael Hayes and Angus MacPhail. It is the thirty-second of the forty-three films he directed, following The Trouble with Harry and preceding The Wrong Man. James Stewart and Doris Day lead the cast as the McKennas, with Brenda De Banzie, Bernard Miles, Ralph Truman and Daniel Gélin in supporting roles. Made for about one million dollars, it took roughly eleven million at the worldwide box office.
On TMDB it holds a rating of 7.4 out of 10 from around 1,600 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- Doris Day had been afraid of flying since the 1940s, when she traveled with Bob Hope (1903-2003) and encountered various mishaps due to severe weather conditions. She almost turned down this role because the filming required travel to London and Marrakech. She was persuaded to take the part by her husband and manager, Martin Melcher (1915-1968).
- During filming, Hitchcock struggled to capture the scene with the dying Bernard, where light streaks appear on his dark face from McKenna's touch, allowing Ben to realize that the man before him is not an Arab, but his recent acquaintance in disguise. The problem was that no makeup could be wiped off the skin easily enough to leave those 'unpainted' areas, and the director loved this striking concept and refused to give it up. The issue was solved quite originally: light paint was applied to the backs of James Stewart's fingers, which left the marks on the face of Daniel Gelen, who played Bernard.
- Doris Day was so popular in the UK that when she arrived in London for location shooting and checked into a hotel, word spread instantly throughout the city, and crowds of fans gathered outside. When the fans spotted her, the police had to be called to escort her through the crowd. The throng remained in the vicinity of the hotel, shouting her name in hopes of getting an autograph or simply seeing the actress. It ended with the hotel management asking Day to leave after a few days.
- While working on this film, Doris Day witnessed how animals were treated, and it was this experience that sparked her commitment to animal cruelty prevention. The actress was so appalled by the conditions in which the animals were kept that she categorically refused to work with them until they were fed and brought to a proper state. The film studio even had to provide feeding troughs for the animals—goats, sheep, camels, etc.—so they could be fed before filming.
- Film enthusiasts considered this movie one of those known as the 'five lost Hitchcock films.' The other 'lost' films by the director are considered to be 'Rope,' 'Rear Window,' 'The Trouble with Harry,' and 'Vertigo.' Their theatrical screenings resumed around 1984. This film was preserved in the archives of the University of California, Los Angeles, and was restored in 2018 using the original VistaVision cinematography system and the original Perspecta Sound directional soundtrack system.
- Alfred Hitchcock and the film's composer, Bernard Herrmann, make cameo appearances. Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is as one of the spectators at an acrobatic performance in a Marrakech market.
- The scene at the Royal Albert Hall lasts 12 minutes without a single word and consists of 124 shots.
- For some reason, the Moroccan extras decided that only those visible on screen would be paid. This led to them pushing and shoving to get closer to the camera, until it was explained to them that everyone, without exception, would receive the agreed-upon payment.
- During filming, Doris Day (1922-2019) increasingly felt that director Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) paid more attention to camera placement, lighting, and other purely technical matters than to her acting. The actress thought he didn't like her performance, but when she finally decided to discuss the matter with Hitchcock himself, she was told that if her acting had dissatisfied him in any way, he would have spent all his time on her.
- Hitchcock liked the original version of the film and decided to make a remake. Although the director changed the setting—the events now unfold in Morocco instead of Switzerland—the original plot remains unchanged, the production became more expensive, and the film is 45 minutes longer.
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