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Criterion kicks off their 2013 slate with a burst of big, beautiful Hitchcock....
Criterion / 76 Minutes / 1934 / Unrated / Street Date: January 15, 2012
A common fight that many classic cinema film dweebs find themselves embroiled in is around what constitutes major and minor Hitchcock efforts. There's no question that as a figure and artist, Hitch looms large over 20th century filmmaking - love him or hate him, he may just be the king of cinema - but as Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection reminded us this year, he may have been poet laureate of the form, but he was known to swing and miss every now and then.
This original Man Who Knew Too Much - released in the United Kingdom in 1934 - inspires passionate responses from each side of this argument. As a political thriller, it absolutely stands as a precursor to The 39 Steps (even Strangers on a Train in a certain fashion), and brings us an English-speaking Peter Lorre who is defiantly, almost eerily strange in his own unique way, but does it belong in Hitchcock Valhalla?
Criterion certainly makes a strong case for the movie - as one of the studio's first high-def releases of 2013, it makes one giddy at the thought of what the new year will also bring from them - but I'll side with the camp that can't quite sign on the dotted line in terms of legitimizing The Man Who Knew Too Much as a bona fide classic. Bubbles of Hitchcock's signature style are absolutely at hand here, but the movie lacks the kind of comprehensive gravitas that Hitch's most notable mid-career efforts proffered. That being said, however, I'm happy to keep this title on my shelf in case a fellow Hitchcock devotee wants to start some friendly cinephilic sparring on the subject....