The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Secrets, spies, kidnapping, the love and wit of British parents, and a big gun battle.
This is not as deft as his later efforts, but here we see Hitchcock developing the genre he would quickly master: the semi-comic action thriller. He told Truffaut it was the work of a "gifted amateur", although I am never sure how much to believe of what he says at such times. I doubt if he felt obligated to bare his soul to interviewers. He later said the first version was more spontaneous, less logical than the second, but also that "logic is boring".
Peter Lorre is magnetic whenever he is on screen, simultaneously jolly and loathsome. His character was originally meant to escape but the censors wouldn't allow that. Lorre is said to have memorized his English at this stage, but I wonder.
Two things make me uneasy about the story: kidnapping a teen girl is more harrowing than entertaining. Maybe we're supposed to understand that nothing bad will happen to her, but the threats are seriously murderous. Second: we have an unusually high body count at the end when they replicate the Siege of Sidney Street.
Many good bits:
During the opening shooting competition, Mom's aim is spoiled by noise from the villains. She returns the favor during the concert.
In the end it is good to have a sharpshooting action Mom!
The yarn breaks when the man is shot, snapping the thread of life. (Hitchcock: "You could be pretentious in those days").
The daughter, Nova Pilbeam, was the leading lady in Young and Innocent (1937) three years later, and was only 17 even then!
Poor Uncle Clive takes one for the team at the dentist.
The turnabout struggle with the nitrous oxide.
The great church furniture fight.
Criterion Blu-ray with a much better image than I have seen before. The commentary track gives background on the production and actors. He doesn't like the remake at all, but says the 1950s Albert Hall sequence was very good.