Review of The Man Who Knew Too Much

The film is best remembered for the expressionist influences on Hitchcock surfacing in the some of the scenes that do not tend to show in the later works of the director. In this film there is the scream that is followed by a gunshot—Hitchcock used the scream to be followed by an engine whistle in "Blackmail" made earlier. In the remake of the film the aural effect gets further diluted—another evidence that the director was no longer a wide-eyed disciple of what he learned in Europe.

Details such as the chiming pocket watch worn by Peter Lorre, the close up of the villain's hair from behind his head, the close up of the teeth in front of the dentist's clinic, the visual gimmick of the camera view going off-focus to indicate the state of a character are examples of Hitchcock being influenced by early European expressionist cinema. The reversal of the role of the dentist and patient was probably the closest Hitchcock came to slapstick comedy though the entangling of the knitting as the dance went on was sheer visual entertainment.

The five hands pointing to a bullet hole in the glass pane seemed to be overdone, considering that the shot and the breaking glass is never heard by the dancers. Another strange sequence is the brawl inside the church when chairs are thrown around but no sound is heard outside.

This film is one of the few films of Hitchcock that show women as strong individuals—the others are "Jamaica Inn," "Rebecca," "Spellbound," " Easy virtue" and perhaps "Marnie." Here the leading lady is a sharpshooter, outdoing the cops at shooting. She even flirts with a man in front of her husband and daughter! Peter Lorre is as usual able to combine fear and sympathy—Hitchcock's best villains always did this ("Frenzy" and " Sabotage" are good examples as well). Lorre's role carries the film.