Following three dismal efforts, Hitchcock was given another chance in a genre that suited him best, suspense. The film here mixed with espionage and a slew of touches which would become Hitchcock staples for the next few decades, drew rave reviews both here and in the USA where the director would be getting a larger appreciation of his work.
Bob and Jill Lawrence (Leslie Banks and Edna Best) are vacationing in St. Moritz with their daughter Betty (Nova Pilbeam). Jill participates in a clay pigeon shooting contest, but loses when she is distracted by the sound of a watch belonging to a man named Abbot (Peter Lorre). That night, Jill dances with a French skier, Louis Bernard (Pierre Fresnay), when he is shot through the window. Dying, Bernard instructs Jill to get a brush containing a note from his room and deliver it to the British Consul. Bob goes after the brush and finds the note which gives a clue to the assassination in London of a foreign leader. When Bob is to give the authorities this information, he receives a note saying that Betty has been abducted and she will only be safe if the Lawrences keep their mouth shut. Arriving back in London, Bob and his secretary (Hugh Wakefield) go after clues to the spy ring (headed by Abbot) which leads the adventures to a dentist chair, a church revival, a concert at St. Albert Hall and a climactic shootout.
The movie apparently had its origins in the early 30's with a script by Charles Bennett for a Bulldog Drummond film called Bulldog Drummond's Baby. British International Pictures didn't go ahead with the production (not sure if it was because Wardour films would be doing The Return of Bulldog Drummond in 1934 and held the rights to the character). When Hitchcock moved to British Gaumont in 1933, the script came with him and was reworked into The Man Who Knew Too Much (the title taken from a series of G.K. Chesterton short stories).
As mentioned before, we have a lot of touches to the film which often are associated with Hitchcock films: the MacGuffin (Bernard's note), the average person thrust in a situation beyond his/her scope of control, a climactic scene in a public landmark (St. Albert Hall), subtle bits of humor. The music heard in the film is all source material (music coming from a radio or performance) but Hitchcock's directing is so fluid that you hardly notice the absence of a score.
His directing skills really bounced back with this effort. Since Blackmail, many of the Hitchcock's films had been slowed down to a crawl with long takes that slowed the film down and made the viewer think that they were watching the filming of a play. His camerawork here is very effective. One scene in particular that stands out is when being questioned by a British intelligence officer, Jill receives a phone call from the kidnappers. Now circa 1932, it seemed Hitchcock would have done a medium shot with with Bob and the officer huddled around, but here we get a closeup of Jill, in her own confused state, with only Bob's chin peeking in. Suspense is also brilliantly built in the concert performance when the assassin plans his act when the cymbals clash, so we get an excellent lead up with the cymbal player, Betty looking around, the assassin getting his gun ready, a shot of the intended victim and the spy ring waiting listening to the concert on the radio.
The acting is top notch here with obviously, Peter Lorre stealing every scene he's in. Lorre, in his first English speaking role (unless you count the alternate English language version of M (1931), available on Blu-ray from Criterion) conveys all of the menacing touches he would show over the next few decades. Edna Best is also very good in her scenes (even though they number fewer than you'd think) but results in her taking charge at the end.
Critics raved about the film. The BFI Film Monthly called it first class cinema and a high water mark in British film production. The Kinematograph Weekly noticed that Hitchcock had found the genre that worked best for him calling the movie artless fiction staged on a spectacular scale. The New York Times called it a notably written and acted bit of story telling praising Hitchcock as one of England's most imaginative directors.
Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut that he closed St. Moritz as the opening location since he had honeymooned there. He wanted a scene at the beginning where a figure skater is skating a code to the spies, but he couldn't make it work. He had also wanted Bob to go to a barbershop rather than a dentist and have him not noticed by the spies because of the hot towels covering his face pre-shave, but a chose not to because of a similar scene a couple of years earlier in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. Lastly he wanted Jill to be hypnotized into becoming the assassin, but it just wouldn't have been as effective.
The film would be remade by Hitchcock in 1956 with James Stewart and Doris Day in the leads and the opening scenes moved to Marrakesh, but following the same basic premise. Hitchcock would call this version the work of a talented amateur and the remake was one made by a professional.
Hitchcock's cameo occurs around 34 minutes in the film right before Bob enters the church, a man is a black trenchcoat is seen walking on the sidewalk. While not as noticeable as his other cameos, it is supposed to be the director (one rumor is the man walking with Hitchcock is Charles Bennett, but its only a rumor).
The movie is in public domain, but I really urge you to watch the Criterion version on DVD, Blu-ray, (available for purchase here) or on the Criterion Channel. I will have to admit, my enjoyment of the movie did increase with a better looking version rather than some print that anyone could put on the market for a couple of dollars.
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