The Man Who Knew Too Much | #ProjectHitch

This week’s #ProjectHitch was a pretty exciting milestone, being the only one of Hitch’s British films that he would later go on to remake in America.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) follows the story of a young girl who gets kidnapped while she and her parents are on holiday in Switzerland. The film itself is pretty dramatic, going back and forth between the concerned parents and the criminals involved, culminating in a rather longwinded shootout between the police and the criminals before the girl can be returned to her family.

I was expecting to enjoy this film more than I did, especially since the main villain, Abbott is played by the iconic, Peter Lorre but alas, I found it a little tiring at times. I definitely enjoyed it more than some of the other films we’ve watched so far but it was far from a new favourite.  

I’ll be excited to see how the 1956 version compares. As far as I’m aware it wasn’t remade because Hitch disliked his first attempt but more so that he needed a new film for Paramount and thought The Man Who Knew Too Much would translate well to more modern times. That being said, I believe the two manage to be quite different in both tone and story so I anticipate being able to compare them both later in the year.

Stick around next week for thoughts on Rich and Strange (1931), since I finally managed to find a copy!

Lesley

xx