The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Yet another James Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock collaboration, which works fairly well, but not at the level of the higher acclaimed Vertigo or Rear Window.
Again Hitchcock shows his skill at creating plenty of suspense and trill from a simple effective premise. I honestly didn’t expect it to go in the way of a spy thriller, though of course the focus is still on Stewart as the ordinary family man thrown into a devious scheme he didn’t sign up for.
What holds this back from greatness is some of the pacing and some questionable use of back projection. Not that they use it, but it is very inconsistently used - even switching in the same scene, which is just jarring. I also felt the slower drawn out scenes didn’t really add to the suspense like they should, they just dragged - making the two hour run time feel longer than it should.
Rating: 3