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The Man Who Knew Too Much

Play trailer Poster for The Man Who Knew Too Much 1935 1h 15m Mystery & Thriller Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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88% Tomatometer 34 Reviews 67% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
On a family vacation in Switzerland, Bob (Leslie Banks) and his wife, Jill (Edna Best), become friendly with a man staying in their hotel. When the stranger is assassinated in their presence, the vacation turns dangerous. Before dying, the stranger passes along a secret to Jill. Then, to keep the couple silent, a band of foreign assassins kidnaps their daughter. Offered no help by the police, Bob and Jill hunt for their daughter as they try to understand the information that they have.
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The Man Who Knew Too Much

Critics Reviews

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TIME Magazine 10/25/2017
The story is told in sharp, abbreviated sequences gathering speed steadily toward their explosive climax, makes The Man Who Knew Too Much one of the neatest melodramas of the year. Go to Full Review David Parkinson Empire Magazine 03/27/2009
4/5
This is a suberbly structured thriller whose excellence is aided and abetted by a spirited cast. Go to Full Review Dave Kehr Chicago Reader 03/27/2009
Although the film is fast and consistently clever, it is more deeply flawed than any other Hitchcock film of the period, failing to find a thematic connection between its imaginative set pieces. Go to Full Review Forsyth Hardy Cinema Quarterly 02/04/2021
The acting is for the most part simple and straightforward, but there is real subtlety in the performance of Peter Lorre, the Dusseldorf murderer of M, as the anarchist leader. Go to Full Review Meyer Levin (Patterson Murphy) Esquire Magazine 04/17/2020
A sort of British G-Men plot, proving that calmness in crisis is more terrific as a suspense medium than the constant rattle of machine guns. Go to Full Review Ann Ross Maclean's Magazine 10/02/2019
Peter Lorre's performance as a sort of undercover Napoleon working blandly to stand Europe on its head, is one of the most brilliant screen achievements of the year. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Autumn M Aug 28 I really like Alfred Hitcock's earlier movies so much better than his movies that were filmed in the 1950's and the 1960's. The dialogue is often sharper, and the acting more subtle. That said, The Man Who Knew Too Much is a well-paced thriller. I did not care for the simplistic plot that much, and I did miss my favorite golden age stars that would come later, but yet it still kept my attention. Definitely worth a watch. See more Lucas t @Groovy Feb 11 (BEWARE COINTAINS SPOILERS) Rushes through a lot of the important stuff in the start but after the assassination attempt I found myself really enjoying it. 7/10. See more Feb 9 Early Hitchcock. 74 minutes long. Worth your time See more Russ G Jan 25 Just awful. Starts out as a spy thriller, a complete muddle in the middle, and then jumps to a pointless, clumsy shoot-em-up. There's no exposition at all. I watched it because it's supposed to be "classic Hitchcock" but found it utterly ham-handed. The '56 remake must have been Sir Alfred's attempt at atonement. See more Leaburn O Jan 24 Not a good or sensible script for this Hitchcock film. Later remade but I prefer this earlier version, largely because you can;t beat Peter Lorre as a villain. One of my fave actors. Watched on Amazon Prime. See more Alain E @AlainE 11/28/2024 Totally boring. Hard to understand what is going on. Not worth my time to stay till the end. See more Read all reviews
The Man Who Knew Too Much

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Cast & Crew

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Alfred Hitchcock

Director

Leslie Banks

Bob Lawrence

Peter Lorre

Abbott

Edna Best

Jill Lawrence

Frank Vosper

Ramon

Hugh Wakefield

Clive

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The Man Who Knew Too Much

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis On a family vacation in Switzerland, Bob (Leslie Banks) and his wife, Jill (Edna Best), become friendly with a man staying in their hotel. When the stranger is assassinated in their presence, the vacation turns dangerous. Before dying, the stranger passes along a secret to Jill. Then, to keep the couple silent, a band of foreign assassins kidnaps their daughter. Offered no help by the police, Bob and Jill hunt for their daughter as they try to understand the information that they have.
Director
Alfred Hitchcock
Producer
Michael Balcon
Production Co
Gaumont British Picture Corporation Ltd.
Genre
Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 22, 1935, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 12, 2016
Runtime
1h 15m
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