5/16/1956 The Man Who Knew Too Much knows it again

May 16, 1956. People complain  a lot these days that Hollywood has run out of new ideas.  It's all sequels, series, and remakes.  Remember when Gus Van Sant remade Psycho shot by shot, in color?

But he was not the first to  try a do-over on Alfred Hitchcock.  That was the Master himself.  This was the opening day for The Man Who Knew Too Much, based on a movie of the same name Hitchcock directed back in 1934.  The original starred Leslie Banks, Edna Best, and the wonderfully villainous Peter Lorre.  The second try starred Jimy Stewart and Doris Day.  It won an Oscar, a rare thing for a Hitchcock movie.  Unbelievably, it won for Best Song: "Que Sera, Sera."

Hitchcock's explanation for the remake: "Let's say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional."