The Man Who Knew Too Much - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Man Who Knew Too Much or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Man Who Knew Too Much

[gabriel]

One of two films released in 1956 where child actor Christopher Olsen is in danger of being killed by a man named Ed. The other film is Bigger Than Life (1956).

[frances]

Many of the Moroccan extras had been mistakenly informed that they would only be paid if they were actually visible in the movie. This led to a lot of pushing and shoving to get close to the camera, until the crew explained to them that they would be paid no matter what.

[toni]

Second of two films where child actor Christopher Olsen played the son of Doris Day. The first was I'll See You in My Dreams (1951).

[norma]

It was during the making of this movie, when she saw how camels, goats and other "animal extras" in a marketplace scene were being treated, that Doris Day began her lifelong commitment to preventing animal abuse. She was so appalled at the conditions the animals were in that she refused to work unless they were properly fed and cared for. The production company actually had to set up "feeding stations" for the various goats, sheep, camels, et cetera, and feed them every day before Day would agree to go back to work.

[clayton]

Rare for a Sir Alfred Hitchcock movie, two of the characters among Jo McKenna's U.K. theatrical friends greeting her at the hotel were the real-life theater patron and manager Val Parnell and his wife Helen.

[kim]

The airplane shown in this movie (G-AMOF) was a Viscount 701 owned by BEA. It was the thirteenth production Viscount made by Vickers-Armstrongs. It first flew on July 23, 1953. It was sold to the Brazilian airline VASP in August of 1962 for around £110,000. It was damaged beyond repair in a landing accident at Rio de Janeiro's airport on October 31, 1966 and scrapped.

[charlie]

Sir Alfred Hitchcock requested blonde Doris Day for the main female role as he liked her performance in Storm Warning (1951), though associate producer Herbert Coleman was reluctant as he knew Day only as a singer.

[kim]

It has been erroneously reported that in the Ambrose Chapel sequence, the congregation is singing a meaningless, continuing drone. They are, in fact, singing a version of a hymn, "From whence these dire Portents around", from the Magdalen Chapel hymn book of 1791, sung to a traditional tune called "Burford".

[morris]

The cymbalist in the climactic assassination moment was drummer Bernie Mattison who was a member of Horace Heidt & His Musical Knights. His son is Burny Mattinson who became a Disney story artist and director and has the longest Disney career of anyone ever in the company.

[morris]

Forty-one years after this film, Guy Standeven (who appears as part of the Albert Hall climax) appeared in The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997). An extra in both films, he had a long and extremely prolific career.

[toni]

Filmed in the summer of 1955.

[sara]

Bernard Herrmann: Conductor plays himself on-screen. Walking to the Albert Hall, Josephine McKann passes by a billboard naming the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and the mezzo-soprano soloist Barbara Howitt of the Covent Garden Opera Chorus. Both are in opening credits for the "Cantata Storm Clouds". This movie may be the only surviving movie of the (uncredited) Orchestra's Leader, violinist George Stratton, and Principal Cello Dennis Nisbett.

[alyssa]

Initially, the script contained a great deal of dialogue at the Royal Albert Hall. According to The New York Times, James Stewart was originally to deliver a page-long speech about why they had to stop the concert. But this didn't go over well with Sir Alfred Hitchcock. "You're talking so much, I'm unable to enjoy the London Symphony", Hitchcock complained to Stewart. "Just wave your arms a lot and run up the stairs." This was apparently normal behavior for Hitchcock, who was "suspicious of the spoken word."

[gerald]

In December 2019, the TV channel TCM Movies (UK and Ireland) ran a version of this movie retro-fitted with the most recent version of the Universal Pictures animated logo. Additionally, it was a 16:9 aspect ratio cropping of the original VistaVision framing.

[violet]

Sir Alfred Hitchcock previously filmed this story as The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934).