The Man Who Knew Too Much

Synopsis: While attending a medical conference in Paris, American physician Dr. Ben McKenna, his wife, retired musical theater actress and singer Jo McKenna née Conway, and their adolescent son Hank McKenna decide to take a side trip to among other places Marrekesh, French Morocco. With a knife plunged into his back, Frenchman Louis Bernard, who the family met earlier in their bus ride into Marrakesh and who is now masquerading as an Arab, approaches Ben, cryptically whispering into Ben's ears that there will be an attempted assassination in London of a statesman, this news whispered just before Bernard dies. Ben is reluctant to provide any information of this news to the authorities because concurrently Hank is kidnapped by British couple, Edward and Lucy Drayton, who also befriended the McKennas in Marrakesh and who probably have taken Hank out of the country back to England. Whoever the unknown people the Draytons are working for have threatened to kill Hank if Ben divulges any information to
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Director(s): Alfred Hitchcock
Production: MCA Universal Home Video
  Won 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.5
Rotten Tomatoes:
91%
PG
Year:
1956
120 min
489 Views


(PLAYING DRAMATIC OVERTURE)

(PEOPLE TALKING INDISTINCTLY)

Daddy, you're sure

I've never been

to Africa before?

It looks familiar.

You saw the same

scenery last summer

driving to Las Vegas.

Oh, sure. Where Daddy

lost all that money

at the crap...

Hey!

...table.

(LAUGHING)

(HORN HONKING)

Hey, look! A camel.

Uh-huh.

Of course this isn't

really Africa, honey.

It's the French Morocco.

Well, it's northern

Africa.

Still seems

like Las Vegas.

We're just

the Sahara desert.

Do you realize

that, son?

I don't know.

In school, they call

this the dark continent.

This is twice

as bright as

Indianapolis.

Ah, you just wait till

we get to Marrakech.

Marrakech?

Sounds like a drink.

Hmm.

It sure does.

(CHUCKLES)

(HORN HONKING)

(TIRES SCREECHING)

(ALL TALKING INDISTINCTLY)

(SHOUTING IN ARABIC)

Wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

Hold on here.

What's the matter?

(BOTH SPEAKING ARABIC)

(ALL MURMURING)

Well, I sure want

to thank you.

Without your help,

anything might

have happened here.

My pleasure,

monsieur.

There are moments

in life when we all

need a little help.

Yeah. Just what

was the trouble?

Your little boy

accidentally pulled

off his wife's veil.

You know?

Oh, yeah.

Hank!

BEN:
I want to introduce

my wife, Mrs. McKenna.

How do you do?

How do you do, madame?

My name is

Louis Bernard.

Well, we thank

you very much,

Mr. Bernard.

That's our son, Hank.

Hello, Hank.

Hello.

You talk Arab talk.

A few words.

Why was he so angry?

It was just an accident.

But the Muslim

religion allows

for few accidents.

Yeah, I suppose so.

Oh.

May I...

Yeah, sit down right

in front of Jo there.

Oh, I thought

his name was Hank.

No, it's my wife's name.

You see, J-O. No "E."

How different.

It's short

for Josephine.

I've called her that so

long nobody knows her

by any other name.

Do they?

No.

I do. Mommy.

Oh, yeah.

Forgot about that.

Now, about

the accident.

You see, a Muslim woman

never takes off her

veil in public

under any

circumstances.

I see.

You mean they feed

intravenously?

No, Hank.

What a big word

for such a small boy.

(CHUCKLES) You see,

I'm a doctor.

Oh, well,

he sounds like one.

(CHUCKLES)

Oh, yeah.

He can spell hemoglobin.

Of course, he has

a little trouble with

words like dog and cat.

(LAUGHING)

Where do you

practice, Doctor?

Indianapolis, Indiana.

Good Samaritan Hospital

out there.

What brings you

to Marrakech?

You see, we were

attending a medical

convention in Paris.

And I thought as much as

as we were in Europe,

I'd come down and

see Morocco again.

Daddy liberated

Africa.

Well, I was stationed

up in Casablanca

at an army field hospital

during the war.

Do you live in Morocco,

Mr. Bernard?

No.

I suppose you came

directly from Paris.

We looked in on

Lisbon and Rome.

HANK:
And Casablanca.

And Casablanca.

I hope you will have

time to truly enjoy

Marrakech.

Well, let's see.

We'll have at the

most about three days.

You will naturally be

stopping at the hotels

La Mamounia or La Menara.

Why do you ask?

Because they are

hotels for tourists

of good taste.

Oh.

Do you live

in France,

Mr. Bernard?

Sometimes.

Do you eat snails?

(LAUGHS) When I'm lucky

enough to get them.

Well, if you ever get

hungry, our garden back

home is full of snails.

Thank you for

the invitation.

(LAUGHING)

That's all right.

We tried everything

to get rid of them.

We never thought

of a Frenchman.

(ALL LAUGHING)

(BICYCLE BELL RINGING)

(BUS HORN HONKING)

(PEOPLE TALKING INDISTINCTLY)

Here we go.

Say, do you want to

share a taxi with us

down to the hotel?

That's kind of you,

Doctor,

but unfortunately,

I have some

business first.

Oh, I see.

What business

are you in,

Mr. Bernard?

However, I'll be there

later. Perhaps we might

have a drink together.

Well, no, come up to

our suite. We'll have

a drink up there.

In that case,

I will take

you to dinner.

No, that's not fair.

But I know Marrakech.

I can show you

an intriguing

Arab restaurant

where the food

is different and the

manner of eating exotic.

Well, that's what

we came here for.

How about it, Jo?

How about

one of those

Arabian nights?

I'd love it.

(LAUGHS)

How would you prefer

to travel to the hotel?

By taxi, fiacre?

BEN:
Gee, I don't know.

A wagon! I wanna

ride in a wagon!

Well, I guess

it's a wagon.

(LAUGHING)

See you later.

Au revoir.

I look forward

to the cocktails.

Good-bye. Come on.

Bye.

Hank, you sit up

with the driver.

How do you like this?

A horse-drawn convertible.

(MEN TALKING)

(INDISTINCT)

(LAUGHING)

Well, I just

saw Louis Bernard

talking to that Arab.

What Arab?

The one that was

shouting at Hank for

pulling the veil off.

They were talking

like they were

very dear friends.

Well, he probably

knew him before.

What does that mean?

It means that

Mr. Bernard is

a very mysterious man.

What? He seemed

perfectly normal

to me.

Now, what do you

really know

about him?

What do I

know about him?

I know his name.

We were sitting there.

We were talking.

You don't know anything

about this man,

and he knows

everything there

is to know about you.

Oh, wait.

He knows that you live

in Indianapolis, Indiana.

He knows that you're

a doctor at the Good

Samaritan Hospital.

And he knows that you

attended a medical

convention in Paris,

and that you

stopped off in Rome,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes

John Michael Hayes

John Michael Hayes (11 May 1919 – 19 November 2008) was an American screenwriter, who scripted several of Alfred Hitchcock's films in the 1950s. more…

All John Michael Hayes scripts | John Michael Hayes Scripts

0 fans

Submitted on August 05, 2018

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "The Man Who Knew Too Much" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_man_who_knew_too_much_13281>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Watch the movie trailer

    The Man Who Knew Too Much

    Browse Scripts.com

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.