The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The man who knew too much |
| Original title | The Man Who Knew Too Much |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1956 |
| length | 120 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alfred Hitchcock |
| script | John Michael Hayes |
| production |
Herbert Coleman , Alfred Hitchcock for Paramount Pictures |
| music |
Ray Evans , Bernard Herrmann , Jay Livingston |
| camera | Robert Burks |
| cut | George Tomasini |
| occupation | |
| |
The man who knew too much (earlier spelling: the man who knew too much ) is a thriller by Alfred Hitchcock from 1956 . Hitchcock had already shot a film of the same name in Great Britain in 1934 , for which Charles Bennett and D. B. Wyndham-Lewis had developed the plot.
action
The American doctor Dr. Benjamin (Ben) McKenna, his wife Josephine (Jo) - a former singer - and their son Hank are on vacation in Morocco . On a bus to Marrakech they get to know the Frenchman Louis Bernard, who offers them his company for the rest of the stay. After Bernard canceled a dinner date at short notice, they meet him again the next day in the market square, disguised as an Arab. Badly injured with a knife in his back, he approaches McKenna and confides in him information about a planned assassination attempt: An important statesman is to be killed in London in the next few days. He dies with the name Ambrose Chappell on his lips. McKenna notes the exact wording and the name Ambrose Chappell on a piece of paper.
McKenna and his wife are called to the local police station for interrogation. Still in shock, they entrust their son to the Draytons, a married couple from England whom they only met the evening before. As it turns out, Bernard worked as an agent for the French secret service . McKenna is called on the phone during the interview. An unknown caller threatens to do violence to his son if McKenna reveals his knowledge of the attack. After returning to the hotel, Hank and the Draytons can no longer be found. Desperate, the McKennas decide to travel to London to look for their son on their own. As soon as they arrive at the airport, Scotland Yard, under the direction of Inspector Buchanan, offers them assistance; out of fear, however, they deny the connection between kidnapping and assassination.
At the same time, Drayton instructs a killer he has recruited in Morocco. Exactly with one stroke of the cymbal at the musical climax of a concert in the Royal Albert Hall , a foreign prime minister is supposed to be shot, who will attend the musical performance as a guest of honor.
McKenna tracks down Ambrose Chappell, but realizes that there is a mix-up. In the meantime, Jo, who has stayed behind at the hotel, realizes that it must not be Ambrose Chappell , but the Ambrose Chapel Church . In the second attempt, both succeed in tracking down the Draytons who appear to be working as a priestly couple. While McKenna tries to hold off the kidnappers, Jo leaves the house to notify Buchanan. However, this is located in the Albert Hall to ensure the safety of the state guest. When trying to find his way through to his son with his own hands, McKenna is overwhelmed and depressed. In order not to lose any time, Jo makes his way to the concert. When she meets a suspicious man in the entrance hall, whom she had already glimpsed in Marrakech, she realizes that the attack is imminent. With a desperate cry at the last second, she draws attention to herself, so that the assassin misses his target. While fleeing, the assassin himself lost his life if he fell over the parapet.
Out of gratitude, the only slightly injured Prime Minister invites the McKennas to his country's embassy, where a reception is taking place for him. However, the ambassador himself was the instigator of the murder. The ambassador asks the Draytons to kill Hank, who is now hidden in the embassy, in order to cover up his involvement in the murder. In order to find her son in the big building, Jo makes use of her fame and sings the song Que Sera, Sera in front of the invited guests . Hank hears the song and then reveals his location with the help of Mrs. Drayton, who at the end still has pity, by whistling loudly and is finally discovered by McKenna. Mr. Drayton tries to escape the embassy with McKenna and Hank hostage, but McKenna manages to push Drayton down the stairs, incapacitating him.
backgrounds
The Man Who Knew Too Much is the remake of a film that Hitchcock made in England in 1934. Compared to the 45 minutes shorter original of the film , locations have been relocated, the plot stretched, new storylines inserted and individual film elements brought into a new context. In addition, other actors appear. The remake begins in Marrakech and not in St. Moritz . The original murder of Louis Bernard takes place after a few minutes, in this film it takes about half an hour to kill. The scene at the taxidermist and the finale in the embassy are new, the dentist working with the conspirators is missing. Other scenes were essentially copied, albeit partly with other people, such as during the service in the chapel. The concert scene in the Royal Albert Hall is almost identical.
In addition to John Michael Hayes , Angus MacPhail was particularly involved in the script. The schedule forced Hitchcock to begin the film, even though the script wasn't ready. Hayes' designs were often rewritten by Hitchcock and MacPhail the evening before the shooting. Part of the filming took place on the original locations in Marrakech. Due to the scheduling and script problems, however, they lagged behind the actual shooting schedule, so that many scenes had to be re-shot in the studio before rear projections. In total, Hitchcock overshooted the shooting schedule by 34 days.
The studio wanted to take advantage of Doris Day's popularity as a singer, so it was contractually agreed that she would have to sing a song in the film. At first she was reluctant to sing the specially composed song “ Que Sera, Sera ” because it was “just a nursery rhyme” . However, the song won an Oscar and gave Day the greatest success of her recording career. Hitchcock's composer Bernard Herrmann appears personally in this film. His name is mentioned on the posters at Albert Hall, and a little later he is seen standing at the conductor's desk during the concert in which the murder is supposed to happen. Here he conducts the “ Storm Clouds Cantata ” by the Australian composer Arthur Benjamin , which was already heard in Hitchcock's original from 1934.
Along with four other films ( Cocktail for a Corpse , The Window to the Courtyard , Always Trouble with Harry and Vertigo - From the Realm of the Dead ) , this film was not available for decades because Hitchcock bought back the rights to it and presented them as part of his inheritance his daughter had intended. They were long known as the infamous "Five Lost Hitchcocks" and weren't shown again until 1984 after a 25-year absence.
Cameo
Hitchcock also has a cameo in this film : He stands in the Moroccan market square with his back to the camera and watches the artists (in front of the murder scene, seen at 24:19 min). Some time earlier, on the bus to Marrakech, two rows of seats in front of the McKenna family, on the far right edge of the picture, a man can be seen whose face is initially covered, but who in all of his visible characteristics bears a strong resemblance to Hitchcock and which is due to its placement attracts the attention of the audience. A little later this man is shown from the side and you can see that he is clearly not Hitchcock.
synchronization
The film The Man Who Knew Too Much was in contrast to some other Hitchcock films (e.g. The Window to the Courtyard , Vertigo - From the Realm of the Dead or Always Trouble with Harry ) only dubbed once. The synchronized version was created in 1956 by Berliner Synchron under the direction of Klaus von Wahl . Fritz A. Koeniger wrote the German dialogue book. For the cast of the German voices, Siegmar Schneider (for James Stewart ) and Edith Schneider (for Doris Day ) were the longstanding standard speakers of the two main actors. Many well-known dubbing actors were cast in the supporting roles.
A special feature of this German version is its (official) existence. At that time, after eight years of exploitation by Paramount, Hitchcock was given the rights to some of his films that he had shot for this film studio: The Window to the Courtyard , Always Trouble with Harry , Vertigo and The Man Who Knew Too Much . In all of the films mentioned, all foreign soundtracks were officially destroyed, which is also mentioned in the press report on the restoration of Das Fenster zum Hof . When the films were due to be shown again in the early 1980s, the German soundtrack was no longer available for any of the films mentioned - with the exception of The Man Who Knew Too Much . It is not yet clear why the German version of this film was retained. Due to the official availability of this dubbed version (in contrast to Vertigo ), it is also used for today's television broadcasts and DVD editions.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Dr. Ben McKenna | James Stewart | Siegmar Schneider |
| Jo McKenna | Doris Day | Edith Schneider |
| Lucy Drayton | Brenda de Banzie | Ursula Grabley |
| Edward Drayton | Bernard Miles | Siegfried Schürenberg |
| Inspector Buchanan | Ralph Truman | Curt Ackermann |
| Louis Bernard | Daniel Gélin | Klaus Miedel |
| ambassador | Mogens Wieth | Wolfgang Eichberger |
| Helen Parnell (friend of the McKennas) | Alix Trayton | Elisabeth Ried |
| Jan Peterson (friend of the McKennas) | Hillary Brooke | Friedel Schuster |
| Cindy Fontaine (friend of the McKennas) | Carolyn Jones | Renate Danz |
| Woburn, Buchanan's assistant | Noel Willman | Harry Giese |
| Rien, the killer | Reggie Nalder | Ralph Lothar |
| Police inspector in Marrakech | Yves Brainville | Kurt Waitzmann |
| prime minister | Alexi Bobrinsky | Erich Dunskus |
| Ambrose Chappell Jr. | Richard Wordsworth | Friedrich Joloff |
| Ambrose Chappell sr. | George Howe | Alfred Haase |
| Inspector Edington | Harry Fine | Knut Hartwig |
criticism
Bosley Crowther wrote in the New York Times on May 17, 1956 that Hitchcock's film had clout and that the plot was developing rapidly. The plot of the film was "quite absurd", but credibility was never Hitchcock's concern, as he was always good at "daring deceptions" of the audience. James Stewart plays even better than in Das Fenster zum Hof and Doris Day is "surprisingly effective" in the role of the desperate mother. Crowther also praised the portrayals of Brenda de Banzie and Bernard Miles as a criminal couple, Christopher Olson as the film's son, and Reggie Nalder as a hit man.
The film service ruled that The Man Who Knew Too Much was an "exciting thriller staged with intelligence and sophistication." Hitchcock had taken up the material of his 1934 film and "developed it further into a masterpiece".
Hitchcock's film has received mostly positive reviews to this day, with Rotten Tomatoes having an approval rating of 91% after 33 reviews. The US film critic Dave Kehr was less convinced of The Man Who Knew Too Much : The film appears "uncharacteristically rigid and pious", as if Hitchcock had made it less out of conviction and more out of duty. Despite the more elaborate scenes, the silent sequence in which Stewart gives his wife pills and tells her that her son has been kidnapped is the strongest sequence in the film. Hitchcock created the film in such a way that the kidnapping looks like an act of God to test the opposing couple and their marriage.
Prices
- 1957: Oscar to Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for " Que Sera, Sera " for Best Song
- 1990: ASCAP Award to Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for “Que sera, sera” as Most Performed Feature Film Standard
- Hitchcock was also nominated for the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
Web links
- The man who knew too much in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The man who knew too much in the online film database
- Review by Dieter Wenk in the Filmzentrale
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for The Man Who Knew Too Much . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2008 (PDF; test number: 12 106-a DVD).
- ^ NDR: Doris Day - "Que sera, sera". Retrieved May 14, 2019 .
- ↑ Bosley Crowther: Screen: At the Old Stand; Hitchcock's 'Man Who Knew Too Much' Bows Newspaper Story 'Rosanna' From Mexico . In: The New York Times . May 17, 1956, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed May 14, 2019]).
- ↑ The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). Retrieved May 14, 2019 .
- ^ The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). Accessed May 14, 2019 .
- ↑ Dave Kehr: The Man Who Knew Too Much. Accessed May 14, 2019 .