The Man Who Knew Too Much Reviews

(OK) Kind of 'Lady vanishes' less frivolous, less fun, even ludicrous when the action is compelled to the chapel and bullets are the soundtrack. ..

Since I’m a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s work, I was really to check this flick. I wonder if it was his first real success. I mean, before that he already did direct about almost 20 movies but they were all pretty much obscure. Anyway, Hitchcock would even remake this flick 20 years later with James Stewart and Doris Day with even more success. Since I already saw the 2nd version, I wasn’t really sure what to expect this time but I was rather pleased that the two movies didn’t have much in common actually. I mean, the basic plot is indeed similar but the execution was really different so it is really worth a look to watch both movies. Basically, it follows the usual gimmick used by Hitchcock, which is to put some ordinary folks in some obscure thriller. The thing I enjoyed the most was probably Peter Lorre’s performance. The guy became famous with ‘M’ and this was his first English language film and he did a great job. Indeed, all the other actors were decent but Lorre clearly stood out creating a spellbinding mannered man which was even more impressive when you learn that he didn’t even speak much English at the time. To conclude, even though it is not one of Hitchcock’s masterpieces, it remains a pretty good thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.