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Saturday, May 24, 2008

THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956)

Alfred Hitchcock’s full-rigged remake of his big 1934 success has never been given due credit. Deeply personal (it’s a love letter, apologia & tribute to his wife Alma Reville Hitchcock), the pic is intensely emotional for a man who is often disparaged as a cold, calculating technician. Here, the magisterial confidence of technique is allied to story construction featuring not only marvels in narrative craft & steadily mounting suspense or the wit he uncovers in form & design, but also to a solid base of family drama that's embedded in every twist & turn. (Only a flat comic interlude in London disrupts the masterful flow of events.) And if there’s a better acted, more disturbing, more painful or tender piece of filmmaking than the scene where James Stewart forces a sedative on Doris Day before telling her that their son has been kidnapped, then watches as she concurrently comes apart & falls into a drugged sleep, please let me know.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Since there can never be TOO MUCH, here's a link to the first version.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-man-who-knew-too-much-1934.html

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