CINÉ REAL The Man Who Knew Too Much

This month CINÉ-REAL, a non-for-profit film club with the aim of bringing filmmakers and cineastes together, are screening a 16mm print of The Man Who Knew Too Much at The Russet, Thursday 25th February 2016.

Following the dismal failure of his first and only musical, Waltzes from Vienna (1934), Hitchcock gratefully accepted a five-year deal withMichael Balcon‘s Gaumont British studios. The Man Who Knew Too Much, released in 1934, was the first in a series of increasingly confident pictures which would make his name worldwide, and lead ultimately to his departure for Hollywood in 1939. It was also the beginning of a fruitful partnership with Charles Bennett, who had written the stage play on which Blackmail (1929) was based. The pair collaborated on five consecutive pictures, before Bennett himself headed for Los Angeles.

The germ of the plot for The Man Who Knew Too Much had been inspired by Hitchcock and Alma‘s honeymoon in St. Moritz in 1927 – the thought of the sedate, upper-class resort being undermined by murder and intrigue was irresistable to the director. The film’s theme of ordinary people caught up by chance in a grand conspiracy is one that Hitchcock would rework throughout his career. He even remade The Man Who Knew Too Much in Hollywood (in 1955), with James Stewart and Doris Day replacing Leslie Banks and Edna Best, in a version which is certainly slicker but arguably inferior to the original. The Man Who Knew Too Much was a spectacular success, rescuing Hitchcock from a difficult period in which he struggled to find the right projects to match his talent.

To attend the monthly screening simply become a member for that month (£5 per person). Book online here.