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Movies that feel like The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

If you loved The Man Who Knew Too Much, the closest films we have are The Lady Vanishes (1938), Foreign Correspondent (1940) and The 39 Steps (1935). All three share The Man Who Knew Too Much's tense and twisty feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 10 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

An American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.

πŸ… 89% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.4 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Alfred Hitchcocktensetwistycontemplativeparanoid
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If The Man Who Knew Too Much hit the spot, these will too

The Lady Vanishes poster
The Lady Vanishes
1938 Β· dir. Alfred Hitchcock
πŸ… 98%β˜… 7.7mystery Β· thriller

Alfred Hitchcock directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Not nearly as contemplative

On a train headed for England a group of travelers is delayed by an avalanche. Holed up in a hotel in a fictional European country, young Iris befriends elderly Miss Froy. When the train resumes, Iris suffers a bout of unconsciousness and wakes to find the old woman has disappeared. The other passengers ominously deny Miss Froy ever existed, so Iris begins to investigate with another traveler and, as the pair sleuth, romantic sparks fly.

Feels alike?
Foreign Correspondent poster
Foreign Correspondent
1940 Β· dir. Alfred Hitchcock
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7.4thriller Β· mystery Β· action

The same hand behind both of them: Alfred Hitchcock

The difference: Without the same stillness

American crime reporter John Jones is reassigned to Europe as a foreign correspondent to cover the imminent war. When he walks into the middle of an assassination and stumbles on a spy ring, he seeks help from a beautiful politician’s daughter and an urbane English journalist to uncover the truth.

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The 39 Steps poster
The 39 Steps
1935 Β· dir. Alfred Hitchcock
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.6mystery Β· thriller

London shapes both of them

The difference: Made in the 1930s, in a different era of the craft

Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.

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Three Days of the Condor poster
Three Days of the Condor
1975 Β· dir. Sydney Pollack
πŸ… 88%β˜… 7.4thriller Β· mystery

Two things both keep coming back to: spy and conspiracy

When bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner finds all his co-workers dead, he, together with a woman he has kidnapped, must work together to outwit those responsible until he determines who he can really trust.

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Blow Out poster
Blow Out
1981 Β· dir. Brian De Palma
πŸ… 88%β˜… 7.4crime Β· mystery Β· thriller

Both are working the same pair: paranoia, whodunit

The difference: Leans further into crime

While recording sound effects for a slasher flick, Jack Terry stumbles upon a real-life horror: a car careening off a bridge and into a river. Jack jumps into the water and fishes out Sally from the car, but the other passenger is already dead β€” a governor intending to run for president. As Jack does some investigating of his tapes, and starts a perilous romance with Sally, he enters a tangled web of conspiracy that might leave him dead.

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Saboteur poster
Saboteur
1942 Β· dir. Alfred Hitchcock
πŸ… 81%β˜… 7.1thriller Β· mystery

Tense and twisty in the same breath

Aircraft factory worker Barry Kane flees across the United States after he is wrongly accused of starting the fire that killed his best friend.

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Notorious poster
Notorious
1946 Β· dir. Alfred Hitchcock
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.9romance Β· mystery Β· thriller

One thread runs through both: espionage

The difference: Played as romance first

In order to help bring Nazis to justice, U.S. government agent T.R. Devlin recruits Alicia Huberman, the American daughter of a convicted German war criminal, as a spy. As they begin to fall for one another, Alicia is instructed to win the affections of Alexander Sebastian, a Nazi hiding out in Brazil. When Sebastian becomes serious about his relationship with Alicia, the stakes get higher, and Devlin must watch her slip further undercover.

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The Tenant poster
The Tenant
1976 Β· dir. Roman Polanski
πŸ… 85%β˜… 7.5thriller Β· mystery Β· drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: paranoia

A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.

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The Man Who Knew Too Much poster
The Man Who Knew Too Much
1934 Β· dir. Alfred Hitchcock
πŸ… 88%β˜… 6.7thriller Β· mystery

Tense thriller, and it commits to that

While vacationing in St. Moritz, a British couple receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet.

Feels alike?
The Manchurian Candidate poster
The Manchurian Candidate
1962 Β· dir. John Frankenheimer
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.9thriller Β· drama

Common ground: conspiracy

Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco, finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and soon races to uncover a terrible plot.

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Pi poster
Pi
1998 Β· dir. Darren Aronofsky
πŸ… 88%β˜… 7.3mystery Β· drama Β· thriller

Both land stillness and paranoia at once

A mathematical genius discovers a link between numbers and reality, and thus believes he can predict the future.

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To Catch a Thief poster
To Catch a Thief
1955 Β· dir. Alfred Hitchcock
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7.4mystery Β· romance Β· thriller

Both lean on twists more than on mystery

When a string of jewel robberies hits the French Riviera, suspicion falls on retired thief John β€œThe Cat” Robie. To clear his name, he sets out to trap the copycat himselfβ€”entangling a wealthy widow and her beguiling daughter in a seductive game of pursuit, deception, and desire.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Man Who Knew Too Much’s defining feeling.