NOVA PILBEAM KIDNAPPED IN 'THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH'

Leslie Banks, Nova Pilbeam and Pierre Fresnay in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

When first hearing about Alfred Hitchcock's THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, the technicolor remake starring an equally-adventurous Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day will usually come to mind... which should have been renamed COUPLE instead of just one MAN...

But here, in the 1934 B&W original mostly known for Peter Lorre's signature creepy and sinister gunman kidnapper, it's mainly Swiss-vacationing British patriarch Leslie Banks taken into random dark-lit interiors to find his kidnapped daughter (after the death of professional-skier friend Pierre Fresnay), played by cute and energetic Nova Pillbeam, who Hitchcock would later direct in YOUNG AND INNOCENT...

Leslie Banks, Nova Pilbeam and Pierre Fresnay in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

Meanwhile wife/mom Edna Best shows up only in what keeps this and the remake very similar: a prolonged third-act finale assassination within a boisterous symphony including formidably clashing gongs...

This locale overall wielding the most Hickcockesque shots, building from those earlier slow-burn moments where the camera captures either sinister weapons or shadowy rooms like they're human characters.. in a hit-miss espionage-adventure that came right before the auteur's true spy-action breakthrough THE 39 STEPS.

Nova Pilbeam and Leslie Banks The Man Who Knew Too Much with Edna Best & Pierre Fresnay

Leslie Banks in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

Peter Lorre in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH with Leslie Banks

Peter Lorre in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH with Leslie Banks

Nova Pilbeam in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH with Leslie Banks

Nova Pilbeam in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH with Peter Lorre and Leslie Banks

Nova Pilbeam in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

Peter Lorre in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

Leslie Banks and Peter Lorre in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

Leslie Banks, Nova Pilbeam and Pierre Fresnay in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

Leslie Banks, Nova Pilbeam and Pierre Fresnay in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

Leslie Banks, Nova Pilbeam and Pierre Fresnay in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

Nova Pilbeam and Leslie Banks in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH