The Man who Knew too Much (1934) Alfred Hitchcock Thriller Peter Lorre Full Movie

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) is a British suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, featuring Peter Lorre, and released by Gaumont British. It was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed films of Hitchcock's British period.

Hitchcock remade the film with James Stewart and Doris Day in 1956 for Paramount Pictures; it's the only film he ever remade. The two films are, however, very different in tone, in setting, and in many plot details.

Bob and Jill Lawrence (Leslie Banks and Edna Best), are a British couple on vacation in St. Moritz, Switzerland, with their daughter Betty (Nova Pilbeam). Jill is participating in a clay pigeon shooting contest. They befriend a foreigner, Louis Bernard (Pierre Fresnay), who is staying in their hotel. One evening, as Jill dances with Louis, she witnesses his assassination as a French spy. Before dying, the spy passes on to them some vital information to be delivered to the British consul.
In order to ensure their silence, the assassins, led by a charming and nefarious Abbott (Peter Lorre), kidnap their daughter. Unable therefore to seek help from the police, the couple return to England and, after following a series of leads, discover that the group intends to assassinate the Ambassador of an unidentified European country, during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Jill attends the concert and distracts the gunman with a scream.

The assassins are tracked to their hide-out in a suburban church. Bob enters and is held prisoner, but manages to escape. The police surround the building and a gunfight ensues, the assassins holding out until their ammunition runs low and most of them have been killed. Betty, who has been held there, and one of the criminals, are seen on the roof, and it is Jill's sharpshooting skills that dispatch the man, who, it emerges, was the man who beat Jill in a shooting contest in Switzerland.
As Abbott seems to commit suicide rather than be captured, Betty is returned to her parents.

Peter Lorre was unable to speak English at the time of filming (he had only recently fled from Nazi Germany) and learned his lines phonetically.[1]
The shoot-out at the end of the film was based on the Sidney Street Siege, a real-life incident which took place in London's East End (where Hitchcock grew up) on 3 January 1911.

Hitchcock hired Australian composer Arthur Benjamin to write a piece of music especially for the climactic scene at Royal Albert Hall. The music, known as the Storm Clouds cantata, is used in both the 1934 version and the 1956 remake.

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appears 33 minutes into the film. He can be seen crossing the street from right to left in a black trench coat before they enter the Chapel.

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Charles Bennett and D. B. Wyndham-Lewis
Associate Producer: Ivor Montagu
Photography: Curt Courant
Editor: H St. C.J. Stewart
Music: Arthur Benjamin


Leslie Banks as Bob
Edna Best as Jill
Peter Lorre as Abbott
Frank Vosper as Ramon
Hugh Wakefield as Clive
Nova Pilbeam as Betty Lawrence
Pierre Fresnay as Louis
Cicely Oates as Nurse Agnes
B. A. Clarke Smith as Binstead
George Curzon as Gibson

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Film & Animation

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• themanwhoknewtoomuch
• Thriller (genre)
• Film

[Hooverdarnit]

I like the 1956 version 10 times better.