The man who knew too much (1934)

	Also Known As: L'homme qui en savait trop
	Year of first release: 1934
	Director: Alfred Hitchcock
	Actors: Peter Lorre, Leslie Banks
	Country: GB
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 09.02.2014, DVD
Synopsis: A man and his wife receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet.
Review:  The recent reviews on Hitchock movies motivated me to watch Alfred's movies that I had never seen. I start with the 30s. The image quality of the DVD was awful, it looked like a bad divx of the end 90s. The mono sound was actually fine. But the viewing did not start well.  There are not many scenes, but each of these has a good picture... for the field of view. Some are also very long especially the last fight with the police. In this movie, some of the tools used by Hitchcock to make a good movie, as explained in the book Le cinema selon Alfred Hitchcock (a.k.a. Hitchcock/Truffaut or M. Hitchcock, wie haben Sie das gemacht?), appear clearly. The bad guy, Peter Lorre acts perfectly and fits to the role. His light Eastern accent makes it more trendy in reference to the Stalinism of the 30s and the American fear of the communists. The McGuffin, the object that everyone wants to have, is a small piece of paper, an piece of information. The rest of the story is very simple and the directing is sometimes almost boring. This might be a reason for the remake done by Hitchcock in the States.
Rating: 4 /10