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The Man Who Knew Too Much
Original film poster
Directed by	Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by	Uncredited: Alfred Hitchcock
Written by	Story: Charles Bennett D.B. Wyndham-Lewis Screenplay: John Michael Hayes
Starring	James Stewart Doris Day Brenda De Banzie Bernard Miles Alan Mowbray Hillary Brooke
Music by	Score: Bernard Herrmann Arthur Benjamin Songs: Ray Evans Jay Livingston
Cinematography	Robert Burks
Editing by	George Tomasini
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	June 1, 1956
Running time	120 min.
Language	English
Budget	US$ 1,200,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Man Who Knew Too Much is a 1956 suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. It is a remake in widescreen VistaVision and Technicolor of Hitchcock's 1934 film of the same name. In the newer version, one of the most financially successful films of its year of release, Brenda De Banzie and Bernard Miles play an apparently benign British married couple, Christopher Olsen plays the son of Day and Stewart, and Reggie Nalder and Daniel Gélin are featured as assassins.

In the book-length interview, Hitchcock/Truffaut (1967), Hitchcock told fellow filmmaker François Truffaut that he considered his 1956 remake to be superior, saying that the 1934 version was the work of a talented amateur, the 1956 version the work of a professional.

The film won an Academy Award for Best Song for "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," sung by Doris Day at several points in the action.

While an American couple, Dr. Ben McKenna, his wife Jo and their son Hank are traveling on vacation in Morocco, they befriend a fellow traveler, the mysterious Louis Bernard, on a bus. Later that day, the couple meets another vacationing couple, the Draytons, at dinner. The next day, the McKennas witness the assassination of a spy in a Marrakesh marketplace. Before dying, the spy whispers into Ben McKenna's ear a terrible secret: that someone's life is in danger. The Draytons kidnap Hank to prevent Dr. McKenna from telling the local police what he has learned. After following a number of leads, McKenna tracks the kidnappers to an old, simple church, where Drayton is posing as a minister. Ben escapes and learns that the Draytons are involved in a plot to assassinate a European head of state on the orders of that country's ambassador, during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, where the film's famous climax takes place. Ben and Jo separately track the assassin to the concert, where he is to shoot the head of state in conjunction with a climatic cymbal crash. However, Jo's scream causes the assassin to misfire, and Ben chases the assassin through the seats before the evildoer falls to his death from the high seats. The couple then track the kidnappers to the ambassador's place in London, where they are welcomed as heroes for saving the head of state's life. Mrs. Drayton, unable to be complicit in the plan to kill Hank, helps the boy find his father. Mr. Drayton tries to escape with the two as hostages but falls down the stairs to his death.

Music plays an important part in this film. Although the film's composer, Bernard Herrmann, wrote relatively little "background" music for this film, the performance of Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds, conducted by Herrmann, is the climax of the film. In addition, Doris Day's character is a well-known, now retired, professional singer. Several times in the film, she sings the Livingston & Evans song "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" which won the 1956 Best Song Oscar under the alternate title "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)." The song reached number two on the U.S. pop charts ^[1] and number one in the UK^{[verification needed]}.

Bernard Herrmann was given the option of composing a new cantata to be performed during the film's climax. However, he found Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds from the original 1934 film to be so well suited to the film that he declined. Herrmann can be seen conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and singers during the Royal Albert Hall scenes. The sequence in Albert Hall runs 12 minutes without any dialogue, from the beginning of Storm Clouds until the climax, when the Doris Day character screams.

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In The Man Who Knew Too Much he can be seen (25 minutes into the film) watching acrobats in the Moroccan marketplace, with his back to the camera, just before the murder.

The film has been released on home video by Universal Pictures, which acquired the rights to Hitchcock's Paramount films, in both VHS and DVD formats. The 2000 DVD includes a special documentary on the making of the film, including interviews with Hitchcock's daughter, Patricia Hitchcock, and members of the production crew. The DVD retains the original VistaVision aspect ratio, capturing the full widescreen impact of the film, with digitally restored images.

• Whitburn, Joel (1987), The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (3rd Ed.), Billboard Publications, ISBN 0823075206.

• The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956 version) at the Internet Movie Database
• Movie stills
• Review at Radiotimes.com