The Man Who Knew Too Much

The original 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much remains a seminal film in Alfred Hitchcock's career: the director's first international thriller about innocents caught up in the intrigue of spies and killers, it also set the template for the movies that would make his reputation, and it gave Hungarian-born Peter Lorre his first English-speaking role, as a spy leader named Abbott. Leslie Banks and Edna Best star as upper-class British couple Bob and Jill Lawrence, whose vacation to Switzerland turns into a nightmare when a British agent dies in their presence and foreign assassins kidnap their daughter, Betty (Nova Pilbeam), to ensure their silence. Hitchcock intersperses tightly constructed and edited sequences with awkward scenes of British emotional restraint (“Steady, old girl, steady”). While there are no romantic sparks here, viewers can see Hitchcock finding his defining style in the snappy pacing, mix of humor and terror, and exactingly constructed set pieces—from the startling assassination during the first act to the accelerating rhythm of the Albert Hall centerpiece. Hitchcock remade the film in 1956 with James Stewart and Doris Day, but this is a tighter, swifter version, which seems to serve as a rough draft for such subsequent classics as The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. Criterion has rescued the film from the dregs of indifferent public-domain versions in this simultaneous DVD and Blu-ray release that boasts a sharp presentation mastered from a restored print. Extras include audio commentary with film historian Philip Kemp, an interview with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, archival interviews with Hitchcock, a restoration demo, and a booklet featuring an essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)