A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Man Who Knew Too Much -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Douglas R]

I think the song bothers a lot of people because it's pretty much delivered like a song in a musical, in a film that isn't a musical.
Quite a few people who like films just can't get on with musicals, and of those who do, it just feels odd for a song to suddenly pop up out of nowhere.
Steve W

Exactly. And there wouldn't even have been a song in the film (at least not that song) if anyone other than Doris Day had been cast in the part.

 

[JohnMor]

Originally Posted by Yorkshire /t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/270#post_4007532
I think the song bothers a lot of people because it's pretty much delivered like a song in a musical, in a film that isn't a musical.
Quite a few people who like films just can't get on with musicals, and of those who do, it just feels odd for a song to suddenly pop up out of nowhere.
I can think of other examples...
Steve W

?? It's really nothing like a song in a musical, where the character sings their internal thoughts as the character with full orchestral background. In this film, the song is song briefly a cappella (as it would be) as a lullaby, then again when the character performs the song at a piano at a cocktail party. Nowhere in the film does Doris Day burst into the song while walking (or dancing) down the street. People actually do play piano and sing in real life, whereas nobody (sane) sings and dances down the street they way people in musicals do, and that isn't what happens in this film. Dooley Wilson sings "As Time Goes By" at a piano in Casablanca, and that is certainly no musical either. And as far as screen time goes, the song appears far less than "Storm Cloud Cantata," yet people don't decry that bit of music, even in the original.

 

[haineshisway]

??  It's really nothing like a song in a musical, where the character sings their internal thoughts as the character with full orchestral background.  In this film, the song is song briefly a cappella (as it would be) as a lullaby, then again when the character performs the song at a piano at a cocktail party.  Nowhere in the film does Doris Day burst into the song while walking (or dancing) down the street.  People actually do play piano and sing in real life, whereas nobody (sane) sings and dances down the street they way people in musicals do, and that isn't what happens in this film. Dooley Wilson sings "As Time Goes By" at a piano in Casablanca, and that is certainly no musical either.  And as far as screen time goes, the song appears far less than "Storm Cloud Cantata," yet people don't decry that bit of music, even in the original.  

You would think all this would be obvious. The song has a plot function. Early on it's set up as a song she sings to her kid - a favorite. Later, she sings it at the Embassy to give James Stewart time to go find Hank, and Hank, of course, ends up hearing it (or the subsequent song - can't remember exactly). Her character is - a SINGER.

 

[Rob_Ray]

Maybe it's because "Que Sera Sera" ranks up there with "It's a Small World" on many folk's irritation charts. Even Doris hated the song the first time she heard it.

 

[Paul Penna]

Whatever the song, it had to have a catchy enough tune so that after only one hearing earlier in the film the audience would instantly recognize it when it later played an important part in the plot. And the line between catchy and annoying is often rather thin.

 

[Douglas R]

Maybe it's because "Que Sera Sera" ranks up there with "It's a Small World" on many folk's irritation charts. Even Doris hated the song the first time she heard it.

Personal memories obviously come into this. As a child in the mid/late fifties, the song seemed to be always on the radio until I became heartily sick of hearing it. I didn't even know that it was featured in the film until I saw the film for the very first time round about 1985, at which time I thought "Oh no. Not that song again!"

 

[Matt Hough]

Originally Posted by haineshisway /t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/270#post_4007614
You would think all this would be obvious. The song has a plot function. Early on it's set up as a song she sings to her kid - a favorite. Later, she sings it at the Embassy to give James Stewart time to go find Hank, and Hank, of course, ends up hearing it (or the subsequent song - can't remember exactly). Her character is - a SINGER.

Hank also whistles along while his mother sings, another plot point which is what alerts mother and father that Hank is at the Embassy. It is "Que Sera, Sera" that Hank hears and whistles to at the Embassy, not her subsequent song "We'll Love Again." The earlier scene is VITAL to the denouement of the story if they are to find Hank in that building.

 

[JoshZ]

And as far as screen time goes, the song appears far less than "Storm Cloud Cantata," yet people don't decry that bit of music, even in the original.  

For me, what it comes down to is that "Que Sera Sera" is annoying, while "Storm Cloud Cantata" is not annoying. Even one verse of the former grates on my ears.

 

[Richard--W]

If audiences had found the song annoying it wouldn't have become a hit and a standard for Doris Day throughout her career. The song is quite charming, really. The ambivalence of the lyrics "whatever will be, will be / the future's not ours to see" reminds us of the jeopardy the boy is in and hints that the assassination won't be avoidable, underscoring the suspense. The song serves the story and the visual business.

 

[Matt Hough]

Yes, the song was one of Doris' many million seller records and won the Best Song Oscar, so it certainly had many fans in its day.

 

[Cineman]

To have the character played by Doris Day be anything other than what she was, a singer (or former singer), would have missed a whole slew of music/concert-related integrated themes and cinematic set pieces so carefully and brilliantly woven into the scenario of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH ('56) as to have either made it an entirely different movie or to have weakened it to the level of your typical mid-50's B-movie pretending to "exotic intrigue".
The very first shot in the movie, during the opening credits, is of an orchestra performing a concert. As with so many Hitchcock first shots/first scenes, this is a tip-off to something more about the movie than mere pretty pictures on which to super-impose credits. This movie is largely ABOUT a "concert", or, as the dictionary would have it, "the unity achieved by mutual communication of views, ideas, and opinions". The "struggle to come together" (another definition of "concert") on those terms is woven into the cultural faux pas committed throughout the movie, the " reluctant retired singer, now doctor's wife and mother" subtext of the not totally sunny marriage between the two main characters and the mission to bring the family together both metaphorically and in reality by rescuing their son from the kidnappers ("Sorry we're late. We had to go pick up Hank"). And most of it is in some very clever way related to the visual and aural cinematic treatment of music, particularly the concert at the Royal Albert Hall AND Doris' character being a former singer, reluctantly retired, and now wife and mother.
Unless you're willing to drop practically every production concept of the scenario and the direction of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, it was essential that she and her son have "their song", on which his metaphorical rebirth, saving his life, could be realized.
Watch how the Royal Albert Hall sequence soloist is introduced. Her shots are nearly matched by shots of Doris Day's character, the former singer and now wife and mother, preparing for her "solo", too. As the concert soloist steps up and begins to express her feelings and emotions, we see Doris turning around to face us and begin to express her internal feelings, which happen to be far more complex and emotional than those of the actual paid singer this evening,
That a singer/actress was cast in this role and that she and her son had a special song that would help bring them together "in concert" was no more an opportunistic or casual casting decision in this truly significant Hitchcock movie than that the biggest set piece event in the movie takes place during a concert peopled by figures who either know too much or know too little was an opportunistic or casual decision. It was integral to the movie's plot and brilliantly rich and complex themes, character and subtext.
Doris Day was PERFECT for the role and in the role.

 

[rsmithjr]

+1
Doris Day's character is the center of the movie.
It is clearly important that she gave up her career to be a housewife for a doctor ("They have hospitals in New York you know.") She is treated in the most condescending way possible (giving her a sedative before telling her about Hank), yet she is at every point right in her intuitions and analysis. ("It's not a person, it's a place.")
Those who claim that Hitchcock underrates and objectifies women should look at this one again.

 

[Richard--W]

+1
Doris Day's character is the center of the movie.
It is clearly important that she gave up her career to be a housewife for a doctor ("They have hospitals in New York you know.") She is treated in the most condescending way possible (giving her a sedative before telling her about Hank), yet she is at every point right in her intuitions and analysis. ("It's not a person, it's a place.")
Those who claim that Hitchcock underrates and objectifies women should look at this one again.

Yes indeed. Well said.
On the other hand, if men and women didn't objectify each other to some degree they wouldn't be in touch with their respective biological imperative, would they?

 

[JohnMor]

/t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/270#post_4007660
Personal memories obviously come into this. As a child in the mid/late fifties, the song seemed to be always on the radio until I became heartily sick of hearing it. I didn't even know that it was featured in the film until I saw the film for the very first time round about 1985, at which time I thought "Oh no. Not that song again!"

That's very true and I think it does annoy many people. It's a matter of personal taste. I for one am more annoyed by the (imo idiotic) song the school children sing in The Birds.

 

[Sumnernor]

I may miss-spell the song-name but "Some of the South" has a song that won many awards "Zip-pee-de-doo-da". This thread is now about songs in movies rather than the movie. I like very much the Hitchcock film and am not bothered the use of a song to find her child.

 

[Rob_Ray]

For the record, I have no problem whatsoever with "Que Sera Sera" and find the song a pleasant, simple tune that serves the film well. Although I must say that the early fifties were overrun with so many simplistic songs (If I Knew You Were Coming I'd Have Baked a Cake, How Much is that Doggie in the Window) that the culture was more than ready for the likes of Chuck Berry to shake things up a bit.
And I agree with John: That song in The Birds is downright toxic. I can't get it out of my head for hours after viewing that film.

 

[Richard--W]

I can't believe people are getting so wrung-out over Doris Day's song.
The school song in THE BIRDS is an actual exercise, or was an actual exercise, in classrooms to teach children syncopation and harmony. The challenge for the students is in the timing and sustaining it for as long as they can without anyone breaking it up. There are a lot of variations on the exercise and other songs like it. It's not the least bit annoying. But it does serve a purpose in the story. Who can suggest why Alfred Hitchcock used the song in the film?

 

[JoshZ]

If audiences had found the song annoying it wouldn't have become a hit and a standard for Doris Day throughout her career.

So you're saying that because a song is popular, it can't also be annoying? May I introduce you to the collected works of one Mr. Justin Bieber?

 

[Trentrunner]

Doris Day is a fraking great singer, and putting her in a movie and not letting her sing is like putting Fred Astaire in a movie and not letting him dance.
(And, for those who don't know, Ms. Day is very much alive, having recently given an interview to Fresh Air. )

 

[rsmithjr]

So you're saying that because a song is popular, it can't also be annoying? May I introduce you to the collected works of one Mr. Justin Bieber?

No.