FILM 1338: THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO
MUCH
TRIVIA: At first, Doris Day refused to
record "Que Sera, Sera" as a popular song release, dismissing it as
"a forgettable children's song." It not only went on to win an
Academy Award, but also became the biggest hit of her recording career and her
signature song. So much for forgettable, she would go on to sing the same song
in two more movies, Please Don't
Eat the Daisies (1960) and The Glass Bottom Boat
(1966), and it was used as the theme song for all 124 episodes of her TV show, The Doris Day Show (1968).
It was during the making of this
film, when she saw how camels, goats and other "animal extras" in a
marketplace scene were being treated, that Doris Day began her
lifelong commitment to preventing animal abuse.
Throughout the filming, Doris Day became
increasingly concerned that Alfred
Hitchcock paid more attention to camera setups, lighting and
technical matters than he did to her performance. Convinced that he was
displeased with her work, she finally confronted him. His reply was, "My
dear Miss Day, if you weren't giving me what I wanted, *then* I would have to
direct you!"
The Albert Hall sequence lasts 12
minutes without a single word of dialogue and consists of 124 shots.
The film was unavailable for
decades because its rights (together with four other pictures of the same
period) were bought back by Alfred
Hitchcock and left as part of his legacy to his daughter. They've
been known for long as the infamous "Five lost Hitchcocks" amongst
film buffs, and were re-released in theatres around 1984 after a 30-year
absence. The others are Rear Window
(1954), Rope (1948), The Trouble with Harry
(1955), and Vertigo
(1958).
The plot calls for a man (Daniel Gélin in the role
of Louis Bernard) to be discovered as "not Moroccan" because he was
wearing black makeup. The makeup artists couldn't find a black substance that
would come off easily, and so they painted the fingers of the other man (James Stewart) white, so
that he would leave pale streaks on the other man's skin (according to Patricia Hitchcock, this idea
was suggested by Daniel Gélin).
In a 1994 interview available on
the liner notes of a Rhino compilation of Oscar winning songs, songwriter Jay Livingston says that
he came across the phrase "Que Sera Sera" in the movie The Barefoot Contessa
(1954), when Rossano
Brazzi shows Ava Gardner
his house, and she sees the inscription "Que Sera Sera" on the gate.
He tells her that is the family motto, and it means 'Whatever will be, will
be'.
Doris Day had a fear of
flying that stemmed from tours with Bob Hope
in the 1940s that resulted in some close calls in impenetrable winter weather.
She almost turned down her role in this film because it required travel to
London and Marrakesh. Her husband and manager, Martin Melcher talked her
into accepting it.
Ambrose Chapel was filmed at St.
Saviour's Church Hall in St. Saviour's Road, Brixton Hill, London. St.
Saviour's was sold off by the Church of England in the 1970s and has since been
torn down.
