The Man Who Knew Too Much Reviews

Married couple Bob and Jill Lawrence (Banks and Best) are vacationing in Switzerland with daughter Betty (Pilbeam), when Louis Bernard (Fresnay), a Frenchman who befriends them, is found murdered. Before dying, however, Louis Bernard whispers a secret--that a diplomat will be assassinated at great embarrassment to the British government. To keep Bob's lips sealed, Betty is kidnapped--to be held until after the assassination by hired killer Abbott (Lorre), scheduled to take place during a concert at London's Albert Hall. Bob must follow his duty as a Englishman and prevent the assassination, but at the same time he must do all in his power to insure the safety of his child. It is in this film that Hitchcock showed his development of a theme he would repeat in films to come--the innocent victim suddenly caught up in a terrifying situation with apparently no way out, coupled with breathless chases in popular public places. This was Lorre's first English-speaking part; he had been brought to England at Hitchcock's request after the director saw him in Fritz Lang's impressive M. Hitchcock, who was not known to favor child actors, got along so well with the young Pilbeam that he gave her her first adult leading role in his film YOUNG AND INNOCENT, three years later.