MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Down 73 this week

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

PG  |   |  Thriller  |  1 June 1956 (USA)
7.5
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.5/10 from 39,024 users  
Reviews: 191 user | 73 critic

A family vacationing in Morocco accidentally stumble on to an assassination plot and the conspirators are determined to prevent them from interfering.

Director:

Writers:

(screenplay), (based on a story by), 2 more credits »
Watch Trailer
0Check in
0Share...

Watch Now

From $2.99 on Amazon Video

ON DISC

The 25 Most Immersive Worlds in Cinema

Highly immersive cinematic worlds can carry a movie, and we've rounded up the best of the best.

See the full list

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 34 titles
created 16 Dec 2010
 
a list of 28 titles
created 19 Jan 2012
 
a list of 41 titles
created 27 Jan 2012
 
a list of 21 titles
created 30 Aug 2012
 
a list of 25 titles
created 04 Aug 2014
 

Related Items

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) on IMDb 7.5/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of The Man Who Knew Too Much.

User Polls

Won 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Mystery | Romance | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

When a reformed jewel thief is suspected of returning to his former occupation, he must ferret out the real thief in order to prove his innocence.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis
Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

The trouble with Harry is that he's dead, and everyone seems to have a different idea of what needs to be done with his body...

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Edmund Gwenn
Frenzy (1972)
Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

A serial murderer is strangling women with a necktie. The London police have a suspect, but he is the wrong man.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Alec McCowen
Rope (1948)
Crime | Drama | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

Two young men strangle their "inferior" classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to challenge the "perfection" of their crime.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger
The Wrong Man (1956)
Crime | Drama | Film-Noir
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

True story of an innocent man mistaken for a criminal.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle
Marnie (1964)
Drama | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

Mark marries Marnie although she is a habitual thief and has serious psychological problems, and tries to help her confront and resolve them.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Martin Gabel
Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

A young woman discovers her visiting "Uncle Charlie" may not be the man he seems to be.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey
Torn Curtain (1966)
Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

An American scientist publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the solution for a formula resin and then figuring out a plan to escape back to the West.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova
Saboteur (1942)
Thriller | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

Aircraft factory worker Barry Kane goes on the run across the United States when he is wrongly accused of starting a fire that killed his best friend.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Otto Kruger
The Birds (1963)
Horror
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette
Suspicion (1941)
Mystery | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Cedric Hardwicke
Spellbound (1945)
Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

A psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
...
Brenda de Banzie ...
...
Ralph Truman ...
...
Louis Bernard (as Daniel Gelin)
Mogens Wieth ...
Ambassador
...
Hillary Brooke ...
Christopher Olsen ...
Reggie Nalder ...
Rien
Richard Wattis ...
Assistant Manager
Noel Willman ...
...
Yves Brainville ...
Police Inspector
Edit

Storyline

While attending a medical conference in Paris, American physician Dr. Ben McKenna, his wife, retired musical theater actress and singer Jo McKenna née Conway, and their adolescent son Hank McKenna decide to take a side trip to among other places Marrekesh, French Morocco. With a knife plunged into his back, Frenchman Louis Bernard, who the family met earlier in their bus ride into Marrakesh and who is now masquerading as an Arab, approaches Ben, cryptically whispering into Ben's ears that there will be an attempted assassination in London of a statesman, this news whispered just before Bernard dies. Ben is reluctant to provide any information of this news to the authorities because concurrently Hank is kidnapped by British couple, Edward and Lucy Drayton, who also befriended the McKennas in Marrakesh and who probably have taken Hank out of the country back to England. Whoever the unknown people the Draytons are working for have threatened to kill Hank if Ben divulges any information ... Written by Huggo

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

A little knowledge can be a deadly thing! See more »

Genres:

Thriller

Certificate:

PG | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

| |

Release Date:

1 June 1956 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much  »

Box Office

Budget:

$2,500,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(Western Electric Recording)

Color:

(Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Michael Hayes wrote the screenplay based on a treatment written by Angus MacPhail. However, Hayes was infuriated when Alfred Hitchcock submitted both Hayes' and MacPhail's names to receive credit for the screenplay. Hayes demanded the credit be sent for arbitration to the Writers Guild of America, which judged Hayes the sole author. Though he was successful in his bid for credit, it caused a never-healed rift between Hitchcock and Hayes. See more »

Goofs

In the Albert Hall, as Jo's emotion wells up in her and she turns away from the orchestra, a camera shadow passes over her dress. See more »

Quotes

Edward Drayton: Remember, you will only have time for just one shot. If you need another, the risk is yours.
Rien: I don't take risks.
See more »

Crazy Credits

Partly because the rights to this film were acquired from Paramount by Universal, the Paramount VistaVision fanfare is played over the opening Universal logo. This is the way it is currently (2005) shown on television in the re-release version (1984). See more »

Connections

Referenced in Hitchcock (2012) See more »

Soundtracks

Whatever Will Be
(1956)
By Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
Performed by Doris Day (uncredited)
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

Perfect.
18 December 2002 | by (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews

All the trademark Hitchcock elements are in place yet again, for a wonderful example of crowd-pleasing from the man who knew better than anyone just how to work an audience. James Stewart, everyone's perfect everyman returns to familiar ground, with the perfect wife (Doris Day, perfect casting), and perfect family. Into this chocolate box world is thrown some dangerous information, and a downward spiral of kidnap and murder.

As usual, there are the elaborately staged set-pieces, and the intimate psychoanalysis that you would expect. Here, the assassination sequence in the Royal Albert Hall provides the former - a beautifully choreographed blend of music and images building to the pivotal crash of cymbals, and the scenes in Morocco the latter, as our couple become obliviously embroiled in international espionage. It is hard to find fault with any of Hitchcock's contrivances (using the Oscar-winning 'Whatever Will Be' as a plot device to get Doris singing is almost too much, but forgivable), and the the whole cast are superb, giving incredibly naturalistic performances - see the scene in the Moroccan restaurant, which almost seems ad-libbed.

One of Hitchcock's best.


35 of 54 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Hitchcock can't do endings s_rothrose
Back Projection... kennethri
Why don't people like this? mr_clifton
Remaking own film SDunne17
Restaurant in Marrakech evren-bekir
The ending...... crazysparrow168
Discuss The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?