Alfred Hitchcock – The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

adminJanuary 27, 2019

2 2,455

Synopsis:
Ben McKenna (James Stewart), his wife Jo (Doris Day) and their boy Hank ride a bus bound for Marrakech. When the boy accidentally yanks the veil off a Moroccan woman, a smooth talking Frenchman diffuses the situation. Ben reveals that he’s a doctor, attended a medical convention in Paris and is visiting North Africa for a change of scenery. The Frenchman invites the couple to dinner, but Jo confides to her husband that she finds the man suspicious.

After their host cancels mysteriously, the McKennas befriend a British couple, the Draytons. They recognize Jo from her musical theater days in London. Spending the next day together at market, they witness a man being stabbed in the back by an assassin. It’s the Frenchman. His last words are to warn Ben that a statesman is to be killed in London. He also whispers the name “Ambrose Chappell.”

The McKennas go with the police, but Ben receives a phone call warning him that his son’s life will be in danger if he says anything. Ben learns that the Frenchman was a spy hunting a pair of foreign agents. He realizes those agents were the Draytons, and now they’ve fled the country with his son. The McKennas return to London to rescue Hank, and end up at the Royal Albert Hall, where a foreign leader is to be assassinated during the symphony.

Review:
A superb thriller from Hitchcock and a remake of the director’s own 1934 original.
Dr. McKenna (Stewart), wife Day and son Hank are on vacation in Morocco when they meet the pleasant Louis Bernard.

But when Bernard is brutally stabbed in public, the dying man entrusts Dr. McKenna with information on a top secret assasination plot currently in the works.

The only problem is: someone’s stolen Hank so as to ensure the couple’s silence!

Can the McKennas get their boy back without harm coming to him, and uncover the mystery behind the upcoming high profile assassination?

Stalwart screen veteran Jimmy Stewart is a joy to watch per usual, but it’s Miss Day’s standout performance as tortured mother Jo McKenna that steals the show.