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The Man Who Knew Too Much
(1956)
In Alfred Hitchcock's dramatic and colorful remake
of his own political thriller film from 22 years earlier:
- during the title credits - the foreshadowing of
the film's climactic ending: "A single crash of Cymbals and
how it rocked the lives of an American family."
- the opening introduction of the McKenna family - American
tourists: surgeon Dr. Benjamin "Ben" McKenna (James Stewart)
and his wife, newly-retired singing star Josephine "Jo" (Doris
Day) from Indianapolis, Indiana, with their 11 year-old son Henry
or "Hank"
(Christopher Olsen); on a bus traveling from Casablanca to Marrakech
in French Morocco (in Northern Africa), they met a Frenchman named
Louis Bernard (Daniel Gelin) who intervened when Hank accidentally
pulled off the veil of one of the local Muslim women
- the startling moment when a sinister-looking man knocked
at the McKennas' hotel-room door in Marrakech [Note: He would later
be identified as Rien (Reggie Nalder), a hired assassin]; Louis Bernard
was in the McKenna's hotel room and witnessed the incident, and then
abruptly cancelled his dinner plans with them
- the 'fish-out-of-water' dinner scene that evening
in Marrakech, when the McKennas met a friendly English couple at
a local Arab restaurant -- the Draytons: Lucy (Brenda De Banzie)
and Edward (Bernard Miles) [Note: They were later revealed to be
the real criminals - leaders of an anarchist terrorist group, involved
in an assassination plot]; it was unusual that Louis Bernard was
also in attendance at the restaurant, but basically ignored the McKennas
- the scene in the Marrakech bazaar marketplace the
next day (the McKennas were with the Draytons) when saw a robed,
dark-skinned man, obviously with face paint, being chased by police,
and then stumbling into the square and falling to the ground, with
a knife sticking out of his back; he reached out to speak to Dr.
McKenna: ("Monsieur McKenna. I'm Louis Bernard")
In Marketplace, Disguised Arab (Louis Bernard)
Knifed in the Back -
With Whispered Secret to Dr. McKenna
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- the whispered secret told to Dr. McKenna (with a
closeup of his ear) by the disguised Arab, actually Frenchman Bernard
whom the McKennas had met earlier: ("A man, a statesman, is
to be killed, assassinated, in London. Soon, very soon. Tell them
in London to try Ambrose Chappell"); mystified by the murder,
Dr. McKenna told his wife: ("Why should he pick me out to
tell?")
- it was later revealed by the police that Louis was
a French Intelligence agent working there in Morocco, part of the
Deuxime Bureau, better known as the "American FBI": ("The
dead man found out what he had been sent here to discover. That's
why he was killed. He told you what he had discovered... Because
he placed complete confidence in you")
- the ominous phone call received by Dr. McKenna in
the police headquarters, revealing that son "Hank"
had been kidnapped for blackmailing purposes: ("If you tell even
one word of what Louis Bernard whispered to you in the marketplace,
your little boy will be in serious danger. Remember, say nothing")
- the revelation by Dr. McKenna to Jo, that he had figured
out why they had been approached by Bernard before his death - they
had been mis-identified as a couple that Bernard was suspiciously
tracking: ("He started to talk to us, and the reason he started
to talk to us was 'cause he was on the lookout for a suspicious married
couple.. a different married couple [the Draytons]....He found them,
all right. It was in the restaurant where we had dinner last night.
And that's one of the reasons he was killed")
- the scene of Dr. McKenna going off track the next
day in his search back in London - when he met with two taxidermists
named Ambrose Chappell, Sr. (George Howe) and Jr. (Richard Wordsworth)
- and discovering shockingly, that Ambrose Chapel was a place - not
a person, and it was where Hank was being held hostage by the Draytons
and the Ambassador (Mogens Wieth) who had hired the Draytons to arrange
for the assassination
- the wordless 12-minute climactic sequence in London's
Royal Albert Hall during a concert performance (of the London Symphony
Orchestra) where both Jo and Ben McKenna was keenly aware of an assassination
plot of some sort (the murder of foreign dignitary - Prime Minister
(Alexis Bobrinskoy)), about to take place at the end of the performance
of Arthur Benjamin's Storm Cloud Cantata during a dramatic
clash of cymbals
- the final climactic moment when a gun barrel was
visible pointing out from behind a red box curtain in the balcony,
and the gunman's shot was accentuated by Jo's terrified shrieking
scream, causing the gunman to miss his mark and only wound the targeted
statesman in the arm, followed by the assassin's death when he struggled
with Dr. McKenna and tumbled from the balcony
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Assassin Rien Aiming His Weapon
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Jo McKenna's Scream Disrupted Gunshot
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Assassin's Death
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One of Early Title Screens
First Meeting of McKenna Family with Louis Bernard on
Bus to Marrakech
Sinister Knock at Door - The Future Assassin!
Dinner with the Draytons at Arab Restaurant
Disturbing Phone Call About Hank's Abduction
Bernard's Whispered Secret
McKenna Questioning the Younger Ambrose Chappell
- On the Wrong Track in London
The Assassin's Target in London's Royal Albert
Hall: The Prime Minister
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