Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much

Though clearly much, much longer than necessary, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much is a decent thriller that’s ultimately saved by its stellar performances and absolutely enthralling last act. The narrative follows Benjamin (James Stewart) and Josephine (Doris Day) McKenna as they stumble upon an assassination plot while vacationing in Morocco, and although he attempts to immediately report the crime to the police, Benjamin finds himself forced to take matters into his own hands after his young son (Christopher Olsen’s Hank) is kidnapped by the perpetrators. Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much gets off to an awfully slow start that nevertheless holds some promise, as filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, working from John Michael Hayes’ script, does a typically strong job of drawing the viewer into the proceedings at the outset – with the movie certainly benefiting from the inclusion of several engrossing sequences (eg Benjamin’s encounter with a dying whistleblower). It’s just as clear, however, that the movie takes a palpable turn for the worse as it progresses into its padded-out midsection, as Hitchcock spends far too much time focused on Benjamin’s continuing efforts at solving the mystery behind both the kidnapping and the conspiracy. The viewer’s waning interest is instantly revived once the infamous Albert Hall sequence rolls around, with the effectiveness of this wordless interlude – which is just about as tense and suspenseful as anything cooked up by Hitchcock – paving the way for a thoroughly engrossing stretch that proves impossible to resist. The end result is a decidedly erratic effort that boasts more than enough positive elements to warrant a hearty recommendation, with Hitchcock’s superlative visual choices and Stewart’s typically captivating performance often compensating for the palpably overlong running time.

*** out of ****