Music in The Man Who Knew Too Much

Hitchcock's passion for the grandiose displays itself prominently in TMWKTM. Shots in The Royal Albert Hall are obscenely large and strive to capture all in a single frame. The music in this scene dictates the action. In essence, what we hear controls what we see. From the musical murder cue to Jo's dramatic interruption, image remains subordinate to sound. Even Jo's song in the Embassy propels the camera directly to Hank's ear in a stunning sequence. We first see her at the piano, singing her heart out, and are then led through corridors, up stairs and past doors to the crying Hank.

Herrmann also makes his one and only cameo in this film, conducting the fictional London Symphony in Sir Arthur Benjamin's Storm Cloud Cantata, a piece written expressly for the first TMWKTM.