The Man Who Knew Too Much [VHS]

It's 1956, and the McKenna family of three, Ben, Jo and Hank, are American tourists on a bus traveling from Casablanca to Marrakech, in French Morocco. On the bus, they meet the strangely curious Louis Bernard, and agree to see him later for drinks and dinner.That doesn't work out so well, and Jo (for Josephine) is very suspicious of Louis. But they do meet a friendly British couple, Lucy and Edward Drayton. They are un-strange and have bad hair, which made me suspicious.The next morning, the McKennas join the Draytons at the outdoor market. They are transfixed when bartering is interrupted by the sight of gendarmes chasing two miscreants through the market. They are astonished when one of the pursued Arabs approaches, and it turns out to be a disguised Louis! Not only disguised, but dying from a knife in the back. With his last breath, the desperate Louis whispers a secret in Ben's ear.On the way to the police station to make their statement, Jo asks Ben, "Why do you suppose he turned up in a Arab outfit and wearing makeup?"Ben: "More important, why was he killed?"Jo: "Maybe he was a spy or something like that. What were you writing? What was he telling you?"She's not the only one who wants to know. The McKennas have a nightmare in store for them.I had seen this 1956 movie on TV years ago but didn't really remember it. I am expanding my Hitchcock DVD library, and viewing this DVD was like seeing the movie for the first time. It is presented in anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1. Now owned by Universal Studios, it has been digitally remastered for this "An Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece" edition, published in 2006.This is a good movie, though not my favorite Hitchcock. It feels a little dated during the Ben and Jo's intertwining actions and reactions when they get back to the hotel after leaving the police station. The whole scene bothers me. If my husband sedated me before telling me our kid had been kidnapped, I don't know that I'd forgive him. But then, there are a couple lines beforehand, which indicate that Jo had used, and maybe overused, tranquilizers before.Overall, Hitchcock does his usual masterful job of showing a good man under stress and an intelligent woman under duress. In particular, the later action in Albert Hall gave me pause. If you could stop an assassination, but you'd been warned your child would be hurt if you did, I can imagine I'd be paralyzed as Jo was. She went to the scene, but she just couldn't take that last step. Desperate to speak and terrified to speak. Masterful acting and directing.DVD Bonus Features:1. "The Making of The Man Who Knew Too Much" (33 minutes) This is an enjoyable special. Commentators include Pat Hitchcock O'Connell (Hitch's daughter), Herbert Coleman (associate producer), John Michael Hayes (screenwriter), Henry Bumstead (production designer) and Steven C. Smith (Bernard Hermann biographer). It also has Jimmy Stewart on set, but it's excerpts from the theatrical trailer included in Bonus Feature #3.Steven Smith says that "music is almost a character in 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'.... Hitchcock needed a song for the film, because after all Doris Day was in the movie and Paramount wanted a song..... Hitchcock met with [the song-writing team] and told them very frankly that Paramount wanted a song more than he did in the movie. And he said, 'I don't know what kind of song I want in the movie, so go write me a song.' "And that's how we got "Que Sera, Sera", which won an Academy award for best song and became a huge hit for Doris Day. I was a baby when the movie and song came out, so though I knew Doris Day sang this song, I had no idea it came from an Alfred Hitchcock movie - you could have blown me away with a feather! That sweet song and Hitch?! But it worked and the juxtaposition is perfect.2. Production Photographs. This is a slideshow of posters and rehearsal stills. Some of the posters are foreign, such as "Der Mann, Der Zuviel Wusste".3. Trailers. The first is the original theatrical trailer.The second is a Re-Release trailer. Ten years after any had come out in theaters, five films were re-released: "Vertigo", "The Man Who Knew Too Much", "Rope", "The Trouble With Harry"(Shirley MacLaine's 1st movie role) and "Rear Window" (one of the best of the best!).4. Production Notes: A few screens of background information. This film followed Jimmy Stewart in the hugely successful "Rear Window" (1954).5. Languages. You can listen in English or French.Subtitles are available in English and SpanishHappy Reader

Classic Movie

This is a good (I would not say "great") Hitchcock film. Decent scenery of both Morocco and London all built around the usual Hitchcock suspense and intrigue. Jimmy Stewart was a great actor and always a pleaser to watch. Doris Day, however, was a tad annoying in this role and I would say did unto "fit " with the typical Hitchcock leading lady. The image of a natural attraction of the two lead characters seemed to be lacking. Anyway, up until his final film, "Family Plot" which was filled with foul language and blasphemy, Hitchcock made a series of entertaining, suspenseful and reliably enjoyable films which you can watch with your family or children and not feel uncomfortable. While not his best, in my opinion, this film was among them.

Great engaging movie. Worth a watch

A family favorite, as is a very different take on a similar title, the comedy The man who knew too Little.

I'm reviewing Universal 61125506, the Blu-ray version of Hitchcock's 1956 remake of "TMWKTM." As one comes to expect from Blu-ray the colors are vibrant in both studio interiors and exteriors, and of the latter there are many. The exception would be the scenes in London, which are gray (as, depending on the season, one would expect). Image clarity is much improved over my old DVD version. Nothing seems to have been done to improve the audio; neither are there improvements or additions to the bonus features, which are sparse. One disappointment: ever since DVD issues of this movie have come accompanied with original trailers, I've been wanting one from 1956 that includes the title-card overlays, wiped on and off, of the the movie's excerpted images. That's still missing here. Either the folks at Paramount (who originally produced and released the film) or Universal (who now owns it) never finished their homework, or those original elements are lost to us forever. One feature missing from this Universal release that they delivered for "Rear Window" (1954)," "Vertigo" (1958), and "Psycho"): the inability to upload the film onto VuDu or your personal computer's iTunes or other media source, for convenient streaming sans disc.As for the movie itself: I consider it first-tier, second-drawer Hitchcock—not one of the director's masterpieces, but certainly one of the best pictures issuing from his extraordinary run at Paramount (1954–60): a notch above "The Trouble with Harry," several notches below "Rear Window." The cast is perfect, from the stars down to the smallest supporting players. In terms of suspense, there's a structural flaw in the storyline that the talented screenwriter John Michael Hayes could not overcome. No one else could have, either: the film's real climax is the Royal Albert Hall concert, which is one of Hitchcock's grandest set-pieces. Really, the movie should have ended there, save for the inconvenient fact that the American parents, played by James Stewart and Doris Day, must be reunited with their kidnapped child. That takes almost another 25 minutes to resolve, and, while necessary, causes a sag in tension. That said, if you don't own "TMWKTM," love Hitchcock, and do not own this movie, I highly recommended it at what (at this writing) is a bargain price for Blu-ray.

日本のＤＶＤ機で再生するのにＰＡＬ方式のＤＶＤが送付されてきたので、再生できない。

Doris Day und Alfred Hitchcock - geht das überhaupt?Und wie das geht! Die eine steht für Herz, Schmerz & Co, der andere für Hochspannung. Beide Elemente kommen in dem Film zu ihrem Recht - und harmonieren prächtig miteinander.Das Ergebnis: ein mitreißender Film (hier hat das Knabberzeug echt Pause)!

good dvd

For a mere mortal to write a review of any of Hitchcock's masterpieces feels embarrassingly presumptuous and inappropriate; suffice it to say that none of the above five stars was awarded idly.Nearly everything this man directed is worth a look. Yes, there are a few mis-firing “Hitch” pictures: the lackluster Topaz and the one-joke Trouble With Harry (oddly, the latter was one of the master's favorites) but this picture belongs to Div. I of the American period. It's a remake of one of his earliest black-and-white talkies, and features a classic Jimmy Stewart performance. (He plays opposite Doris Day, pictured.)Here, as so often, Stewart plays a man with a lot of surface confidence who is liable to fall to pieces (à la Vertigo) under mental strain. That is supplied in plenty as a child gets kidnapped and spies seem smarter than the local coppers in two different continents.Brilliant stuff, with one of the few (if not the only) on-screen appearances by Bernard Herrmann, the director's middle-to-late period composer (North by Northwest; Psycho). Oddly the most important part of the score is supplied not by Herrmann but by the Australian Arthur Benjamin (with lyrics by D.B. Wyndham-Lewis). The performance of this piece, the Storm Cloud Sonata, provides the basis for one of Hitchcock's most audacious, theatrical, funny and terrifying set-pieces.A must-see.

Un excellent film d'HitchcockUn grand classique...