Monday, January 6, 2014

Hitchcock Time


The Man Who Knew Too Much
My favourite Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and remade in 1956 with Doris Day and James Stewart. The Original starred Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre. I like both versions, the original one has the shoot out scene that’s missing in the newer version.

Impressive 75 minute film. The plot of the story is catchy, a couple, the Banks meet a spy, while vacationing in Switzerland, who whispers a secret of a diplomat’s assassination at London’s Albert Hall to the wife. Now assassins must prevent them from revealing what they know. So they kidnap the couple's kid as a pawn.
Hitchcock rose to fame as a worldwide household name after the release of this film. The song "Whatever will be, will be, Que sera sera" sung by Doris Day is worth listening to. My all time favourite of hers is "The Way We were" check this link to hear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBXMjXD4VGc

Doris Day began her career as a band singer and sang for Columbia Records with more than 650 recordings to her beautiful voice. She was leading actress giving box office hits for more than 15 years and did 39 films from 1948 to 1968.

James Stewart was often paired with leading ladies the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Judy Garland, Margaret Sullavan and of course Doris Day. There are so many Stewart movies I have seen but shall share those some other time.

The climax of the movie has beautiful music composed by Australian composer Arthur Benjamin- Cantata, the Storm Clouds- click on this youtube link to listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-BR0DPO48U

An awesome suspense film. A must watch.

No comments:

Post a Comment