Mirror Images: Reflectivity in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much

The second film in the Herrmann/Hitchcock collaboration, The Man Who Knew Too Much, henceforth TMWKTM, explores various themes of familial relations—mother/son, husband/wife, father/son—and how these bonds are tested in a time of crisis.  Contrary to cursory analysis, this film is not solely about international intrigue, espionage and assassination.  These subjects are, in effect, Hitchcock’s real MacGuffin—the plot element that inevitably turns out to be inconsequential.  They only affect the film’s purpose incidentally, providing a context in which familial struggles and crises can be borne and resolved.  This film details the struggles that plague an average American family placed in a very unaverage situation. 

Beneath its surface, however, lies a common thread that connects characters, events, locations and music. TMWKTM is essentially a "play of mirrors" [1]. Jo and Ben stand, at times, on opposite sides of a mirror at once close and warped reflections of each other.  "Lacanic” mirror identification also plays a huge part in this film as it details the relationship between Jo and Hank.  Scoring, whether Herrmann’s rather sparse orchestration or Arthur Benjamin’s massive Cantata, also serves to reflect or even direct the action occurring on-screen.  Indeed, TMWKTM is as rife with mirrors as a fun house, with some reflecting clearly and others distorting the original image.  The viewer can only see past Hitchcock's clever Mcguffin and into the heart of the McKenna's family struggle by closesly examining the relationship between these confusing and at times twisted looking glasses.