Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on laptop.
The more I watch Hitchcock, the more I like a lot of his work. At the same time, I also realize what a limited palette Hitchcock had. The Man Who Knew Too Much is a ridiculously entertaining film, but in many ways it’s no different from many other Hitchcock films. There are elements of The 39 Steps and North by Northwest and Rear Window packed into this film. What this one has that the others don’t is exotic locations. Hitchcock was all about ordinary people trapped in extraordinary circumstances, mistaken identities, and people in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Dr. Ben McKenna (James Stewart), his wife Josephine (Doris Day), and their son Hank (Christopher Olsen) are on an exciting trip. After a medical conference in Paris, they’ve seen Madrid, Lisbon, and Casablanca and are now heading to Marrakesh before they head back home to Indianapolis. On the bus the meet a man named Louis Bernard (Daniel Gelin), who is friendly but fairly mysterious. While Ben has no problem with him, Jo is suspicious of him. She’s more suspicious when Louis begs off of the dinner he promised them, then shows up at the same restaurant and ignores them completely.
