"Doris surprised a lot of people with her acting in 'The Man Who Knew Too Much', but she didn't surprise Hitch." - Jimmy Stewart

"James Stewart and Doris Day, faultlessly groomed and as smooth as marbles, earn their high pay with perfect studio performances."  - The Nation

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Alfred Hitchcock

Herbert Coleman
Alfred Hitchcock

John Michael Hayes
Charles Bennett
Wyndham-Lewis
Angus MacPhail


James Stewart
Doris Day
Brenda de Banzie
Bernard Miles
Ralph Truman
Daniel Gélin
Mogens Wieth
Alan Mowbray
Hillary Brooke   
Christopher Olsen
Reggie Nalder
Richard Wattis
Noel Willman
Alix Talton
Yves Brainville
Carolyn Jones


John C. Hammell
Jay Livingston
Ray Evans


Robert Burks

George Tomasini

Filwite Productions, Inc.

May 16, 1956

120 Minutes

USA

English

$11,333,333.00

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Doris co-starred in this thriller with James Stewart, another film for which Doris deserved an Oscar. The song, “Que Sera, Sera”, did win an Oscar for best song and has become the song most associated with Doris to this day.

An American family, Dr. Ben McKenna (James Stewart), his wife Jo (Doris Day) and their son Hank (Christopher Olsen) are vacationing in Morocco. On a bus from Casablanca to Marrakesh, they befriend a Frenchman named Louis Bernard (Daniel Gelin), who is friendly enough, but Jo becomes suspicious at his many questions and evasive answers, and thinks he is hiding something.

Bernard offers to take the McKennas out to dinner that night but suddenly cancels when a sinister-looking man arrives at the door of the McKenna's hotel room claiming to be looking for another guest's room. Later, while dining at a local restaurant, the McKennas meet an English couple, the Draytons, who strike up a conversation with the McKennas, who are surprised to see Bernard arrive at the restaurant and sit at another table while apparently ignoring the group.

The next day, while exploring a busy outdoor marketplace in Marrakesh with the Draytons, the McKennas see a man in Arab clothing being chased by police. After being stabbed in the back, the man approaches Ben, who discovers the man is really Bernard in disguise. Before dying, Bernard whispers into Ben's ear that a foreign statesman will be murdered in London very soon, and that he must tell the authorities there about 'Ambrose Chappell'.

Mrs. Drayton offers to return Hank to the hotel while Dr. and Mrs. McKenna are questioned by the authorities. The interrogator reveals that Bernard was a French Intelligence agent on assignment in Morocco. While at the police station, Ben receives a phone call from a mysterious man who informs him that Hank has been kidnapped but will not be harmed if the McKennas say nothing to the police about Bernard's last words.

After arriving in London the McKennas are told by Scotland Yard Inspector Buchanan that Bernard was indeed a spy trying to uncover an assassination plot in Morocco, and that they should contact him if they hear from the kidnappers. Leaving friends in their hotel room, the McKennas follow a false lead resulting from their assumption that 'Ambrose Chappell' is a person, but finally track the kidnappers to a church named 'Ambrose Chapel', the kidnappers' base of operations where Mr. Drayton, posing as a minister, is leading a service.

While Jo calls police, Drayton ends the service early and Ben confronts him and is knocked out. The Draytons take Hank to a foreign embassy just before Jo arrives with the police at the seemingly deserted chapel. Jo learns Buchanan has gone to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall and goes there to get his help. There she sees the man who mistakenly came to her door in Morocco. When he threatens her son if she interferes, she realizes he is the assassin sent to kill the foreign Prime Minister (Alexis Bobrinskoy) now also at the concert hall.

Ben escapes the locked chapel and tracks Jo to the hall, where she points out the assassin to him. Ben frantically searches the balcony boxes for the killer, who is waiting for a cymbal crash to mask the gunshot. But when Jo sees the barrel of the assassin's gun appear from behind a curtain, she screams just as the cymbals crash, causing him to miss his mark and merely wound his target. Ben finds and struggles with the assassin, who falls to his death from the balcony. The grateful Prime Minister invites the McKennas to meet with him at his London embassy.

The McKennas learn that the Draytons have taken refuge in the Prime Minister's embassy, where Hank is being held, and where the ambassador has led the plot to kill his own Prime Minister. Hatching a plan to find their son, Ben and Jo arrive at the residence and are welcomed as heroes for having saved the Prime Minister's life.

Jo is asked to sing and she does so very loudly. The song? One her son Hank knows very well...so do we: "Que Sera, Sera". 
The plan is that he will hear his mother's voice and hopefully respond to it. Mrs. Drayton, who is guarding Hank but is unwilling to harm him, tells him to whistle along with the song, which draws Ben to the room where he is being held. Mr. Drayton catches them and tries to escape with the two as hostages, but is struck by Ben and falls down the stairs and is killed when his gun fires accidentally.

The McKennas return to their now-sleeping friends in their hotel room, where Ben says, "I'm sorry we were gone so long, but we had to go over and pick up Hank."

Movie Quotes

Ambassador: You have muddled everything from the start, taking that child with you from Marrakesh. Don't you realize that Americans dislike having their children stolen?


Jo McKenna: So, what do you do?

Louis Bernard: I buy and sell.

Jo McKenna: I see. And what do you buy and sell?

Louis Bernard: Whatever gives the most profit.


Hank McKenna: If you ever get hungry, our garden back home is full of snails. We tried everything to get rid of them. We never thought of a Frenchman!



Songs

"Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" - Performed by Doris Day

"We'll Love Again" - Performed by Doris Day

"Storm Cloud Cantata" - Performed by London Symphony Orchestra


Trivia

From IMDB:

"The movie was originally to be produced by Paramount Pictures and Patron, a company to be jointly owned by James Stewart, Doris Day and Alfred Hitchcock. When the film finally went before the cameras, the production company was Filwite Productions, Inc., co-owned by Hitchcock and Stewart. The reason Day was not included in the final production deal has not been publicly disclosed. However, it may have had something to do with Day's husband and manager at the time, Martin Melcher, a man absolutely despised and considered shady by many in Hollywood. "

"John Michael Hayes wrote the screenplay based on a treatment written by Angus MacPhail. But Hayes was infuriated when Alfred Hitchcock submitted both Hayes' and MacPhail's names to receive credit for the screenplay. Hayes demanded the credit be sent for arbitration to the Writers Guild of America, who judged Hayes the sole author. Though he was successful in his bid for credit, it caused a never-healed rift between Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes. "

"Alfred Hitchcock:  in the Moroccan marketplace in a crowd watching the elevated acrobats with his BACK to the camera, on the extreme left, immediately before the murder. Be *alert* and look QUICKLY (and if possible, have "pause" and "rewind" controls available), as this cameo is very easy to miss - even after repeated viewings - because the eye is naturally drawn to the acrobats. "

"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 - 1973). "

"In 1965, Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart filed a $4,000,000 lawsuit against Paramount Pictures, arguing that their eight-year agreement with the studio had ended and that Paramount had breached their copyright by televising the film. The director and actor also requested that Paramount return the film's original negative to them. The final disposition of this suit has not been made public, but the film remained unavailable for commercial exhibition for many years. "


From Wikipedia:

"In the book-length interview Hitchcock/Truffaut (1967), in response to fellow filmmaker François Truffaut's assertion that aspects of the remake were by far superior, Hitchcock replied "Let's say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional."

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