Tortured: Doris Day in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much
by Rick McGinnis
Rick's Flicks
January 31, 2026
Sometimes momentum counts for more than we imagine in creative careers. When Alfred Hitchcock released The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956 he was in the middle of what is now considered a golden period that began with Strangers on a Train in 1951, continued with Rear Window (1954) and To Catch a Thief (1955) and would be followed by Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960) – films upon which much of his popularity and critical reputation rest.
James Stewart, Hitchcock's preferred leading man during much of this period, had started the decade with a series of westerns directed by Anthony Mann (Winchester '73, Bend of the River, The Naked Spur, The Far Country, The Man from Laramie) that have passed the test of time as genre classics. And nothing becomes an American legend more than playing legendary Americans like Glenn Miller (The Glenn Miller Story) and Charles Lindbergh (The Spirit of St. Louis).
But the secret weapon would turn out to be Stewart's leading lady in The Man Who Knew Too Much. Doris Day arrived in Hollywood as a band singer recruited for her voice and wholesome good looks, and made a string of films for Warner Bros. that made it look like she was coasting on these two attributes – nearly a decade of perky fluff punctuated by one notable dramatic role as a Klan member's wife in Storm Warning (1950). But her performance as Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me proved what she was capable of – and provided Hitchcock with a gift he didn't anticipate.
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https://www.steynonline.com/15948/tortured-doris-day-in-alfred-hitchcock-the-man
