THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956)

This is a remake by Hitchcock of a film he made in 1934.  

The highlight of the earlier version is an assassination attempt during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, so it's no surprise that Hitchcock keeps this in the remake.  

He also keeps the underlying premise, of a normal couple who accidentally learn of a plan to commit a political assassination, whose child is kidnapped to keep them from going to the authorities.

But in all other details the two films are completely different.

This one starts in Morocco, where Ben and Jo McKenna, with their son Hank, are on holiday.  Given that this portion of the film is simply there to set things up it goes on for a surprisingly long time (at least 45 minutes).  It's too long in my opinion, but eventually Hank is kidnapped, and Ben and Jo desperately go to London where their only lead is a man (so they think) by the name of Ambrose Chappell.

In fact Ambrose Chapel is a church, where they meet again the Draytons, the sinister couple who befriended them in Morocco before kidnapping Hank. 

Then we're off to the Albert Hall for the terrific set piece which is very much the reason to seek out this film.

Jo is played by Doris Day.  I can't say that I'm a big fan of her screen persona, which is one of this film's deficiencies as far as I am concerned.  That being said she does a great job of conveying her anguish at the concert where she wants to thwart the assassination but is afraid that in so doing she would be endangering the life of her child.

To round things off we get a very neat conclusion at an embassy where Hank is being kept prisoner, where Jo's celebrity status as a singer is used to good effect.

The plot has a major problem in that it relies upon a huge coincidence - that the Scotland Yard detective dealing with Hank's kidnapping just happens to be at the concert where the assassination is planned, given that the only reason Jo and Ben go to the Royal Albert Hall is their urgent need to inform him about their sighting of the Draytons.

James Stewart plays Ben, but although I'm a huge admirer of his, this isn't an especially interesting role for him.

And I'm not sure that Hitchcock always get the tone right, in that there are some attempts at humour which don't sit well in a film about a couple caught in a parent's worst nightmare.  The very final scene for example, is really quite bizarre.

So it's an above average Hitchcock (if only for the Albert Hall set piece) but no classic.