Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much” – Bauhaus. One of the best ways to appreciate early 20th century decorative hardware designs is to watch classic films from the 1930’s. As a door furniture specialist, one movie I recently watched caught my attention. Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film, “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1934), captures the glamour and excitement of vacationing in a luxury ski resort in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

A key scene hinges on a very fashionable Bauhaus-inspired design lever lockset. A man is mysteriously shot at a party, and with his last breaths, he hands over a key to his room to his dancing partner, with instructions on where to get an important note (an early example of the “MacGuffin”, an object on which the plot turns). She shares the revelation with her husband, who goes to the man’s room to retrieve the note.

As one of cinema’s most famous directors, Hitchcock had a unique style, and he created tension through small details and close-ups. When someone tries to follow the husband into the murdered man’s room, we see a tight shot of a stunning Bauhaus modernist style door lever slowly turning.

Who is there? What do they know? And more importantly, for our purposes, what kind of fashionable lockset was on the door symbolizing the glamour of the location? … A Bauhaus style of door lock with its classic clean and simple lines.

Our Hamilton Sinkler HL032 lever handle is a contemporary representation of this iconic modernist style.

-rs