Dial M For Murder (1954)

Subject: Dial M For Murder (1954) Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:57 am

Dial M For Murder is a Hitchcock film based on a play. It tells the story of a man whose wife is cheating on him. His wife is quite wealthy and he is the beneficiary to her will. He attempts to have her killed by blackmailing somebody, but this plan goes all wrong and his wife kills the would-be murderer in self-defense. The man then attempts to frame his wife so it looked like she murdered him and it wasn't in self-defense at all. As this film was originally supposed to be in 3D, it is presented in two halves despite the short running time (since theaters only had 2 projectors and 3D films required 2 at once, a brief intermission was necessary to load the second half of the film). From almost right at the start until the intermission, this film is absolutely brilliant, nearly perfect. The second half, while good is far inferior to the first half. Overall, the plot is great.

As this was adapted from a stage play and makes very few changes, both the set and cast are rather small. With a few exceptions, this film takes place in a single room. Hitchcock was the master of tiny sets, and this film doesn't come off as claustrophobic at all. The film stars Ray Milland as the husband and Grace Kelly as the wife. Milland comes off as a villainous Cary Grant and is quite good. Grace Kelly is even better and is a prototypical Hitchcock blonde.

While this film isn't perfect, it's one of the better Hitchcock films I've seen. The suspense is phenomenal and despite a slight drop in quality in the second half, the way things are constantly changing at the end is brilliant. An absolute must-see.

90.5/100
A-

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