Taglines: Don’t overestimate him.
The Man Who Knew Too Little movie storyline. Wallace Ritchie (Bill Murray) flies from Des Moines, Iowa, to London, United Kingdom, to spend his birthday with his brother, James (Peter Gallagher). As James hosts a business dinner, he sets Wallace up with an interactive improv theatre business, the “Theatre of Life”, which promises to treat the participant as a character in a crime drama.
Before the night begins, James hands Wallace a pair of Ambassador cigars, promising to “fire them up” before midnight in celebration of Wally’s birthday. Wallace answers a phone call intended for a hitman at the same payphone that the Theatre of Life uses for its act.
The contact, Sir Roger Daggenhurst (Richard Wilson), mistakes Wallace for Spencer, the hitman he has hired and Wallace assumes the identity. The real Spencer (Terry O’Neill) picks up the phone call meant for Wallace and murders one of the actors, prompting a police investigation.
Daggenhurst, his assistant Hawkins (Simon Chandler), British Defense Minister Gilbert Embleton (John Standing), and Russian intelligence agent Sergei (Nicholas Woodeson) plan to detonate an explosive device (hidden in a Matryoshka doll) during a dinner between British and Russian dignitaries, to rekindle the Cold War and replace their aging technology.
Still believing he’s acting with the Theatre of Life, Wally meets Lori (Joanne Whalley), Embleton’s call-girl. Lori plans to blackmail Embleton for a substantial amount of money using letters that detail the plot. Spencer was hired to eliminate her and destroy the letters.
Wallace scares off Embleton when he arrives to look for them and drives off Spencer. Fearing their plot will be revealed, Daggenhurst hires two more hitmen, while Sergei hires now-inactive spy Boris “The Butcher” Blavasky (Alfred Molina), to eliminate “Spencer”. Boris succeeds in killing the real Spencer, but Wallace and Lori return, retrieving the letters.
Using Spencer’s communicator, Wallace mentions lighting up some “big Ambassadors, at 11:59,” referring to James’ cigars. Thinking the words refer to the assassination plot, both sides believe he is an American spy who has caught on to their scheme. Daggenhurst offers Wallace and Lori 3 million British pounds in return for the letters, at the same hotel where the dinner is taking place. This is a ruse to capture and kill them both. All the while Wallace gets close to his “co-star” Lori, who confesses she’d love to study acting once they’re paid.
The Man Who Knew Too Little is a 1997 American-German spy comedy film starring Bill Murray, directed by Jon Amiel, and written by Robert Farrar and Howard Franklin. The film is based on Farrar’s novel Watch That Man, and the title is a parody of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much and his 1956 remake of the same title.
The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)
Directed by: Jon Amiel
Starring: Bill Murray, Peter Gallagher, Joanne Whalley, Richard Wilson, Alfred Molina, Anna Chancellor, Geraldine James, John Standing, Nicholas Woodeson
Screenplay by: Robert Farrar, Howard Franklin
Production Design by: Jim Clay
Cinematography by: Robert M. Stevens
Film Editing by: Paul Karasick, Pamela Power
Costume Design by: Janty Yates
Set Decoration by: Maggie Gray
Art Direction by: Chris Seagers
Music by: Christopher Young
MPAA Rating: PG for language, innuendo, comic violence and sensuality.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: November 14, 1997
Hits: 98
