Dial M for Murder (1954)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Frederick Knott (screenplay)
Frederick Knott (play)

Release Date:

29 May 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Kiss By Kiss...Supreme Suspense Unfurls!

Plot:

An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to murder his wife. When things go wrong, he improvises a brilliant plan B.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Money | Police | Blackmail | Lure Of Riches

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Ray Milland	...	Tony Wendice
Grace Kelly	...	Margot Mary Wendice
Robert Cummings	...	Mark Halliday
John Williams	...	Chief Inspector Hubbard
Anthony Dawson	...	Captain Lesgate - aka Charles Alexander Swann
Leo Britt	...	The Storyteller
Patrick Allen	...	Detective Pearson
George Leigh	...	Detective Williams
George Alderson	...	First Detective
Robin Hughes	...	Police Sergeant
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Richard Bender	...	Banquet Member (uncredited)
Sanders Clark	...	Detective (uncredited)
Jack Cunningham	...	Bobby (uncredited)
Robert Dobson	...	Police Photographer (uncredited)
Guy Doleman	...	Detective (uncredited)
Bess Flowers	...	Woman Departing Ship (uncredited)
Robert Garvin	...	Banquet Member (uncredited)
Michael Hadlow	...	Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Sam Harris	...	Man in Phone Booth (uncredited)
Alfred Hitchcock	...	Man at Tony's Table at the Dinner in Photograph (uncredited)
Harold Miller	...	Men's Club Party Member (uncredited)
Martin Milner	...	Policeman Outside Wendice Flat (uncredited)
Forbes Murray	...	Judge at Margot's Trial (uncredited)
Ben Pollock	...	Banquet Member (uncredited)
Thayer Roberts	...	Detective (uncredited)

Directed by
Alfred Hitchcock

Writing credits
Frederick Knott		(screenplay)
Frederick Knott		(play)

Produced by
Alfred Hitchcock	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Dimitri Tiomkin		(music composed by)

Cinematography by
Robert Burks		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Rudi Fehr

Art Direction by
Edward Carrere

Set Decoration by
George James Hopkins

Makeup Department
Gordon Bau	....	makeup artist
Otis Malcolm	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Gertrude Wheeler	....	hairdresser (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Mel Dellar	....	assistant director
C. Carter Gibson	....	second assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Herbert Plews	....	props (uncredited)

Sound Department
Oliver S. Garretson	....	sound
Stanley Martin	....	sound (uncredited)
Robert G. Wayne	....	sound (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Eddie Leon Albert	....	camera assistant (uncredited)
Wesley Anderson	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Pat Clark	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Vic Johnson	....	gaffer (uncredited)
Louis Mashmeyer	....	grip (uncredited)
William John Ranaldi	....	camera assistant (uncredited)
Leonard J. South	....	camera technician (uncredited)
Claude Swanner	....	best boy (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Moss Mabry	....	wardrobe
Jack Delaney	....	wardrobe: men's (uncredited)
Lillian House	....	wardrobe: ladies' (uncredited)

Music Department
Dimitri Tiomkin	....	conductor

Other crew
Rita Michaels	....	script supervisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures (presents) (A Warner Bros.-First National Picture)

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1954) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1954) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1955) (France) (theatrical)
• Victor Company of Japan (JVC) (1985) (Japan) (video) (VHD)
• Warner Home Video (1987) (USA) (VHS)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1992) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Video (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (1999) (Germany) (video)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Chapel Distribution (1997) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Sociedade Importadora de Filmes (SIF) (Portugal)
• Warner Home Video (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (USA) (complete title)
Dial 'M' for Murder (USA) (alternative spelling)
Le crime était presque parfait (Belgium: French title) (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Bei Anruf Mord (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
La llamada fatal (Argentina) (Venezuela) [es]
Alibi (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
Chamada para a Morte (Portugal) [pt]
Con M de muerte (Venezuela) [es]
Crim perfecte (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
Crimen perfecto (Spain) [es]
Daiyaru emu wo mawase! (Japan) [ja]
De moord was bijna volmaakt (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
Det perfekta brottet (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Disque M Para Matar (Brazil) [pt]
Il delitto perfetto (Italy) [it]
La llamada fatal (Crimen perfecto) (Argentina) [es]
Slå nollan till polisen (Sweden) [sv]
Täydellinen rikos (Finland) [fi]
Telefonen ringer kl. 23 (Denmark) [da]
Tilefonisate asfaleia amesou draseos (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
U spreekt met uw moordenaar (Netherlands) [nl]

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Warnercolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Spain:T | West Germany:12 (video) (re-rated) | West Germany:16 (nf) (original rating) | South Korea:12 (DVD rating) (2004) | Brazil:16 | Canada:PG (video rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Norway:16 | USA:Approved (PCA #16708) | USA:PG (1982 re-release) | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

John Williams won the 1953 Tony Award (New York City) for Supporting or Features Actor in a Drama for "Dial M for Murder" as Inspector Hubbard and recreated the role in the movie version.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: (At 41:41) Just before Margot is strangled she answers the phone but there is no one speaking. We clearly HEAR that she is hitting the phone button several times with her hidden hand. As we saw previously that this is not an 'operator' call, this should disconnect. However, the husband keeps talking, and can be heard even before he hits the 'connect' button.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Margot Mary Wendice: let me get you another drink. Mark, before Tony comes I ought to explain something.
Mark Halliday: Yes, I've been waiting for that.
Margot Mary Wendice: I haven't told him anything about us.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Un homme et une femme, 20 ans déjà (1986)

The perfect film for the perfect murder...

After earning an Academy award nomination for her performance in John Ford's 1953 tale of romance and adventure, "Mogambo", the beautiful actress Grace Kelly proved that she was way more than just a pretty face and that there was real talent behind her image. However, what truly took her career to new levels were three now classic films she made directed by the legendary Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Under his direction, Kelly made an integral part of the Master's films, becoming the perfect embodiment of Hitchcock's idea of a female protagonist. While Kelly debuted two years earlier in the classic Western "High Noon", one could say that it was Hitchcock who really introduced the beauty and talent of Grace Kelly to the world. "Dial M for Murder" was the first of Hitchcock's films with Kelly, and a movie where once again the Master returns to a familiar theme: the perfect murder.

The movie is the story of Tony Wendice (Ray Milland), a former tennis player married to the beautiful and wealthy Margot (Grace Kelly) and living in an nice apartment in London. Life is good for Tony, until he discovers that his wife is cheating on him with an old flame of her, famous crime novel writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings). After that discovery, Tony spends a whole years plotting the perfect way to murder his wife in order to inherit her money, carefully planning every detail of the crime. When Mark visits London again, Tony finds the perfect chance to set his plan in motion, and as planned, he recruits Charles Swann (Anthony Dawson) to kill his wife. However, bad luck and a sudden change of events will test Tony's plan's infallibility as, just as Mark points out, human action can originate flaws even in the most perfectly devised plan.

Like most Hitchcock's films, "Dial M for Murder" was an adaptation of another art-form, this time a popular play by Frederick Knott. As Knott was also the writer of the screenplay, the movie remains extremely faithful to the play, although of course, not without its differences. Knott's script is wonderfully constructed, as like in the play, the dialog is witty and simply captivating, with many twists and turns that spiced up the complex plot and keep it from being boring or tiresome. An interesting feature of the movie is that oddly, there are no black and white morality in the characters, and it's easy not only to sympathize with Margot (despite she being cheating on her husband) but also to sympathize with Tony (despite he wanting to kill his wife), as the characters are wonderfully developed with very detailed personalities.

It seems that Hitchcock's knows that the dialog is the highlight of the play, as he deliberately focuses on his actors and uses an elegant camera-work to frame the whole movie inside the apartment. The movie literally is shot entirely in one single room (only two other sets are used, and only briefly), but Hitchcock's classy way of using the camera allow a highly dynamic flow that never lets the movie be tiresome. This is also very helpful as Hitchcock just lets his characters keep speaking, carefully describing actions and events (when other directors would use flashbacks) in a similar way to a what the real play would be. While this approach could easily get boring, Hitchcock's use of colors and overall visual imagery simply creates the perfect medium to allow Knott's dialog to shine.

Without disrespecting John Ford or Fred Zinnemann, I think that it was Hitchcock who finally could allow Kelly's talent to shine beyond her physical beauty. Grace Kelly makes her character shine with her subtle and restrained performance, specially showing her skill in the second half of the film. While often Kelly receives top honors in this movie, it is actually Ray Milland who makes the whole movie work with his suave and charming "villian". Milland's performance is simply terrific, making his character nice enough to win the sympathies of the audience, yet still frighteningly intelligent as the mastermind of the plot. John Williams appears as the Inspector in charge to solve the complex puzzle, and delivers a classic performance as the Enlgish gentleman decided to find the final answer. Only Robert Cummings seems miscast as Mark Halliday, although a lot of his weak performance could be blamed to Milland, Kelly and Williams overshadowing him with their excellent work.

In many ways, "Dial M for Murder" shares many things with "Rope", as not only the two films are based on successful plays, they are also about committing the perfect murder and oddly, they are both "experiments": while "Rope" was conceived as a "movie in one take", "Dial M for Murder" was done as 3-D movie. Sadly, the interest in 3-D was dying when the film was released, so few theaters carried the movie complete with the gimmick; a real shame, as Hitchcock's use of the technology, unlike most 3-D films of its time, was conceived as a way to enhance the claustrophobia of the Wendices' apartment instead of using it to merely shock the audience with "stuff coming out of the screen" (as seen in for example, "House of Wax"). While not too fond of the gimmick, Hitchcock truly gave it a good and intelligent (albeit subtle) use to it.

"Dial M for Murder" is probably less celebrated than the Master's most famous movies, the fact that it came out the same years as "Rear Window" (again with Grace Kelly) may have had something to do with it too. While a subtler and more restrained tale of suspense, this is still the Master at his best, as the movie proves that when he was at the top of his game, no other director was comparable to him. 9/10