The Man Who Knew Too Little

Director: Jon Amiel Jon Amiel

Overview

Jon Amiel directed this satire on mistaken-identity thrillers and the spy genre, scripted by Robert Farrar, Tim John, and Oliver Butcher from Farrar's unpublished novel, Watch That Man. In the female lead, Joanne Whalley returned to films after a three-year absence, choosing to do so with director Amiel. Farrar's Hitchcockian-style story focuses on naive Blockbuster Video clerk Wallace Ritchie (Bill Murray) who travels from Des Moines, Iowa, to London to celebrate his birthday with his wealthy younger brother, James (Peter Gallagher). When he turns up on the same night that James has plans to attend a high-profile client dinner party (that he hopes will bring him millions from a German investment firm), James needs to keep Wallace away during the evening, so he gives Wallace a ticket to the participatory Theater of Life. The theater game requires Wallace to assume a character and interact with actors portraying people in dramatic situations. At the corner phone booth, the initial call should begin the evening of innocent fun. However, the phone instructions Wallace receives are actually intended for an assassin, part of a scheme to end the current UK regime and revive the Cold War. The real assassin gets the call from the Theater of Life. Blissfully unaware, Wallace walks without fear into a complex web of intrigue involving defense ministers, call girls, and Russian hitmen. For Wallace, all the world's a stage, and he's amazed at the skill of the actors, including beautiful enigmatic Lori (Joanne Whalley) -- while Wallace's pursuers are mystified by their adversary's fearlessness in the face of threats, torture and bullets. Farrar got the idea for this comedy from a chance remark at a party: "The inspiration came from a dinner party, when somebody told me about these strange live theater performances which were all the rage in England in the '80s. The idea was to telephone for instructions if you wanted to take part. My immediate reaction was, 'Wouldn't it be fabulous if somebody got the wrong number, and it all went hopelessly wrong?'" Filming took place in London's East End (Three Mills Studios), at a variety of London locations, and just outside London at the Elstree Film Studios.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/11/2015
UPC:	0024543215615
Original Release:	1997
Rating:	PG
Source:	New Regency
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:34:00
Sales rank:	7,537

Special Features

Closed Caption; Feature-length Audio Commentary by Director Jon Amiel ; Trailers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Bill Murray	Wallace Ritchie
Peter Gallagher	James Ritchie
Joanne Whalley	Lori,Mugger No. 2
Alfred Molina	Boris
Geraldine James	Ludmilla
John Standing	Embleton
Simon Chandler	Hawkins
Anna Chancellor	Barbara Ritchie
Nicholas Woodeson	Sergei
Cliff Parisi	Uri
John Thomson	Dimitri
Janet Henfrey	Ms. Goldstein
Terry O'Neill	Spenser
Isabel Hernandez	Consuela
Donald Pickering	Sir Duncan
Venetia Barrett	Sir Duncan's Wife Felicity
Terence Harvey	Herr Schuster
Cate Fowler	Frau Schuster
Richard Dixon	Rupert
Sarah Crowden	Sylvia/Fiona
Barnaby Kay	Swat Team Leader/PC in James',Liveried Child
David Hounslow	Wilkie
Adam Fogerty	Newman
Jacqueline Phillips	Annabel
Inday Ba	Des
Dexter Fletcher	Otto
Josephine Gradwell	WPC Wendy
Linda Broughton	Middle-Aged Woman
David Boyce	Middle-Aged Man
Jo Dow	Hotel Manager
Bob Holmes	Husband in Hotel Room
Paul Shearer	TV Reporter
Yoshinori Yamamoto	Japanese Man
Toshie Ogura	Japanese Woman
Charles Simon	Aged Desk/Night Clerk
Roger Morlidge	PC Cochrane
Ashley Gunstock	Second Policeman in Car
Judith Dawson	TV Newscaster
David Michaels	MI5 Agent
Damian Myerscough	Stage Manager
Jason Round	Policeman
Andrew Woodall	Det. Sgt. Malloy
Malcolm Storry	Chief Insp. Cockburn
Eddie Marsan	Mugger No. 1
Fred Whitham	Toastmaster
Linzi Lazlo-Carr	Liveried Child
Richard Cubison	Immigration Officer
Sarah Greene	TV Presenter
Mike Smith	TV Presenter
J.E. Freeman	CIA Man
Maxwell Caulfield	British Agent
Mike Justus	Waiter
Henry B. Walthall	Actor
Rod Taylor	Actor
James Booth	Actor
Richard Wilson	Actor
Christopher Young	Composer

Technical Credits

Howard Franklin

Robert Farrar

Jon Amiel	Director
Joe Caracciolo Jr.	Executive Producer
George Gibbs	Special Effects
Carmila Gittens	Special Effects
Michelle Guish	Casting
Wayne Michaels	Stunts
Arnon Milchan	Producer
Michael Nathanson	Producer
Elisabeth Robinson	Executive Producer
Mark Tarlov	Producer
Howard Franklin	Screenwriter
Joe Caracciola, Jr.	Executive Producer
Robert Farrar	Screenwriter
Simon Kaye	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A high-concept comedy in which Bill Murray -- who is perhaps too cerebral a comic presence for the clueless role he's been assigned -- manages to pull off one of his best performances. He may have started out playing mentally challenged whack jobs in films such as Caddyshack (1980) and Stripes (1981), but Murray has always shined brightest as characters who are intellectually snide and above it all. Here he's required to fill the part of a video store manager too dim to get that he's actually embroiled in a real-life espionage drama, engaged in what he believes to be a role-playing game. A Hitchcock-style thriller by way of a TV situation comedy, the film is a clever comic idea but would seem to call for the lead to be almost energetically stupid, a buffoon in an overcoat, very likely the way somebody such as Jim Carrey would tackle the job. Instead, Murray underplays the hero, disengaging from what's going on around him and blithely drifting rather than dumbly stumbling through his adventures, a truly interesting choice that makes his clueless quality more believable. What is so pleasantly surprising is that he's not playing the character as too stupid to understand what's happening, but instead is seizing on the man's languid lack of ambition as the real underlying cause of his inability to wise up. In Murray's hands, the hero is not an idiot, he's just too zonked-out to care. It's a brilliant choice that changes the dynamics between him and every other character and a terrific example of a dexterous performer doing some amazing work. What should have been nothing more than a forgettable but briefly enjoyable farce becomes, along with Quick Change (1990), one of Murray's most underrated films and one that's definitely worth a second look for his fans.