Skip to content
Search

Where will your curiosity take you?

Tiers of red seating and boxes rising round the oval Royal Albert Hall auditorium
The Royal Albert Hall auditorium, 2007. Amanda Slater from Coventry, West Midlands, UK · CC BY-SA 2.0

Programme · Hitchcock · 1956

The Man Who Knew Too Much

The climax runs about 12 minutes with no dialogue, and ends on one cymbal crash. Count the measures, then visit the places the film passed through.

Sources

The score

Count to the crash

Arthur Benjamin’s Storm Clouds Cantata has 177 measures. Move the baton from the first to the last.

Sources

About 0:03 into a piece of 8 to 9 minutes. 176 measures to the crash.

To scale, in minutes

The cantata8 to 9
The sequenceabout 12

The film page times the sequence from the start of the cantata to the scream; the cantata page gives its own length. The two do not say what fills the difference.

Sources

The hall is holding its breath. Keep counting.

The parts

Eight places, in the film’s order

3 of the eight have gone or changed. Choose a part.

Sources
Crowds and food stalls across the open square of Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakech
Jemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakech, 2011. Jorge Láscar from Australia · CC BY 2.0

Marrakech · Still there

Jemaa el-Fnaa

Wikipedia names the Marrakesh marketplace where Bernard is stabbed as Jemaa el-Fnaa.

A fan location list says the opening scenes, including the murder of the mysterious Frenchman, were shot in the souks and this square.

Wikipedia places Hitchcock’s own cameo about 25 minutes 42 seconds in, in the lower left corner of the Moroccan market scene.

By day the square holds orange juice stalls and water sellers. Late in the day the snake charmers leave and storytellers and magicians arrive.

An open public square at the heart of the old city, free to enter. Food stalls fill it after dark.

Sources
Paramount Pictures Studio Tour

Paramount Studio Tour

Hollywood, Los Angeles

Tours of the lot where most of the film’s interiors were shot. Check the tour page for days, lengths and prices. Pictured: the Melrose Gate, 2005.

Plan a tour
Viator · Ad / affiliate

Marrakech medina and Jemaa el-Fnaa tours

Marrakech

Live marketplace results for guided walks through the medina and the square. Check each route.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours

Curtain call

Go and find the parts

The Albert Hall, the square and the Melrose Gate can be visited or seen from the street. The taxidermist’s and the embassy are gone; the Hilton stands on the embassy’s site.

Sources

Where it is now

8 places in Morocco, England and California, two of them gone.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An open public square at the heart of the old city, free to enter. Food stalls fill it after dark.

  • Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working hotel opposite the Kutubiyya Mosque. The street front is public; ask the hotel what non-guests may enter.

  1. Crowds and food stalls across the open square of Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakech
    Jemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakech, 2011. Jorge Láscar from Australia · CC BY 2.0

    Marrakech · Jemaa el-Fnaa, the medina of Marrakech

    Jemaa el-Fnaa

    Wikipedia names the Marrakesh marketplace where Bernard is stabbed as Jemaa el-Fnaa.

    An open public square at the heart of the old city, free to enter. Food stalls fill it after dark.

    Sources
  2. The arched entrance of the La Mamounia hotel in Marrakech
    The entrance of La Mamounia, Marrakech, 2009. martinvarsavsky · CC BY 2.0

    Marrakech · Avenue Bab Jdid, opposite the Kutubiyya Mosque, Marrakech

    La Mamounia

    Wikipedia lists the hotel as a filming location for the 1956 film.

    A working hotel opposite the Kutubiyya Mosque. The street front is public; ask the hotel what non-guests may enter.

    Sources

Stay

A room in Marrakech.

The hotel the film names as Ben and Jo’s.

La Mamounia

La Mamounia

Marrakech

The Marrakesh hotel named as Ben and Jo’s in the film. Its own site lists rooms, four restaurants, four bars and gardens. Pictured: the entrance, 2009.

Check rooms

Go there

Find your seat.

A studio tour, and marketplace searches for the hall and the medina.

Paramount Pictures Studio Tour

Paramount Studio Tour

Hollywood, Los Angeles

Tours of the lot where most of the film’s interiors were shot. Check the tour page for days, lengths and prices. Pictured: the Melrose Gate, 2005.

Plan a tour
Viator · Ad / affiliate

Royal Albert Hall tours

South Kensington, London

Live marketplace results for tours and visits at the hall. Check each listing for what it includes.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours
Viator · Ad / affiliate

Marrakech medina and Jemaa el-Fnaa tours

Marrakech

Live marketplace results for guided walks through the medina and the square. Check each route.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours

What’s on

No dates yet.

Nothing dated for the film is listed at these places now.

No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The archive

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

8 of 8 places · 9 of 9 stories

  • Jemaa el-Fnaa

    Jemaa el-Fnaa, the medina of Marrakech

    • The market stabbing

      Bernard is stabbed in the Marrakesh marketplace; a fan list puts the opening scenes in the square and its souks.

  • La Mamounia

    Avenue Bab Jdid, opposite the Kutubiyya Mosque, Marrakech

    • The hotel

      Ben and Jo’s Marrakesh hotel is La Mamounia, according to a fan list and Wikipedia.

  • Royal College Street

    Royal College Street, Camden Town, NW1

    • The cab

      Ben arrives in London by cab on Royal College Street, a fan list says.

  • Plender Street

    Plender Street, Camden Town, NW1

    • Followed

      Ben walks Plender Street believing he is followed, towards the taxidermist.

  • Gerrard’s taxidermists

    College Place, Camden Town, NW1

    • The taxidermist

      The taxidermist scene is shot at Gerrard’s on College Place, which closed in the mid-1960s.

  • The embassy, Park Lane

    Park Lane, Mayfair, London

    • The embassy

      Park Lane House plays the foreign embassy; it was later demolished for the Hilton.

  • Royal Albert Hall

    Kensington Gore, South Kensington, London SW7

    • The cantata

      About 12 minutes without dialogue: the Storm Clouds Cantata runs to its cymbal crash at the Royal Albert Hall.

    • The One-Note Man

      The sequence takes its idea from H. M. Bateman’s comic; Herrmann conducts on screen.

  • Paramount Pictures lot

    Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles

    • The soundstages

      Most interiors are shot on Paramount stages, mainly Stage 4, a fan list says.

Places to stay

Stay near these placeswithin easy reach.

What’s on

On near these places

We may earn a commission on qualifying hotel bookings. Affiliate disclosure.

Links go to each venue’s or organiser’s own site. Check dates, access and availability there before you go.

Keep exploring

Where next?

Every place in The Man Who Knew Too Much leads somewhere else.

On the mapSee London on the atlas mapOpen the atlas
Your atlas

Keep The Man Who Knew Too Much with the places you mean to see.

How saving works

Its cities

All 50 cities

Related Worlds

All Worlds
Image credits
  • Leadenhall Market, the City of London · Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Los Angeles at night, seen from Griffith Observatory · dubassy / Mixkit · CC BY-SA 4.0
Privacy