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Amazon.co.uk Review
A suave tennis player (Ray Milland) plots the perfect murder, the dispatching of his wealthy wife (Grace Kelly), who is having an affair with a writer (Robert Cummings). Amazingly, the wife manages to stave off her attacker, a twist of fate that challenges the hubby's talent for improvisation. Alfred Hitchcock wisely stuck to the stage origins of Dial M for Murder, ignoring the temptation to "open up" the material from the home of the unhappy couple. The result may not be one of Hitchcock's deepest films but it's a thoroughly engaging chamber movie. It also features Grace Kelly at her loveliest, the same year she made Rear Window with Hitchcock. Dial M for Murder was filmed in the briefly trendy 3-D process and Hitchcock shot some scenes to bring out the depth of the 3-D field; it's especially good for the nail-biting attempted murder of Kelly and her desperate reach for a pair of scissors that seems to be just outside her grasp. However, the film was rarely shown with the proper 3-D projection, going out "flat" instead (a 1980 reissue restored the process for a limited theatrical release). Dial M was remade in 1998 as A Perfect Murder,a film that changed and expanded the material, with no improvement on the clean, witty original. --Robert Horton
Product Description
Classic Hitchcock movie starring Grace Kelly & Ray Milland. Ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice decides to murder his wife for her money and because she had an affair the year before. He blackmails an old college associate to strangle her, but when things go wrong he sees a way to turn events to his advantage.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Classy entertainment,
By Jl Adcock "John Adcock" (Ashtead UK) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Dial M for Murder [1954] [DVD] (DVD)
Quite why anyone would want to murder someone as beautiful as Grace Kelly remains a mystery. But that's what smooth Ray Miland plans here as payback for his wife's daliance with an American mystery writer. Effortlessly blackmailing an old colleague into doing the job, Miland provides himself with an alibi for the dirty deed - but things go horribly wrong and the would-be killer ends up dead himself - impailed on a pair of darning scissors when he botches the murder.
From here on in, the outcome of the film hinges on the cleverness of the police to beat Miland from getting away with it. It's all slickly done and marvellously out of date now of course - but Dial M for Murder is yet one more example of Hitchcock's art and skill as a director.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Super performance by Ray Milland,
This review is from: Dial M for Murder [DVD] [1954] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (DVD)
This film's delicious 1950s banter is one of the main attractions for me. Ray Milland's interpretation of the role is, however the biggest attraction and is mesmerizing as a charming yet duplicitous husband of Grace Kelly. The plot and moreso the dialogue is perfect and far better than the hollywood action of today - especially the almost monologue of Tony Wendice (Milland) explaining how he's going to blackmail Swan into killing his wife. Despite the plan going slightly awry the sharp thinking and intelligence of Wendice comes to the rescue for the first few tests.My favorite quote would have to be when Milland implies his relief when he doesn't have to go round for dinner at a friends, saying "she's such a filthy cook!". And even when Wedice has Swan round to explain the plan he receives a call form his wife without getting nervy and even makes a joke - when he can't read her handwriting. I won't spoil than one. He says it in a through away manner and just underpins his charismatic character. And a very graceful ending indeed- reminds me of the ending of almost any Columbo episode except this film being inodinately patrician in comparison!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mind you, even I didn't guess that at once...,
By
This review is from: Dial M for Murder [1954] [DVD] (DVD)
One of two plays that Hitchock ever adapted for the big screen (Rope was the other), Dial M For Murder isn't one of Hitchcock's true great flims, but it is a very entertaining piece of work.
It relvolves around an elaborate, and perhaps it's TOO elaborate, plot by ex-tennis player Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) to have his wife Margot (played by the exquisite Grace Kelly) killed after she's had an affair with Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings). Given time constraints, relatively little re-writing was done for the screen which meant that the London setting was left intact as were the British nationality of the characters. This does mean however that the film is very heavy on dialogue, and it does sometimes betray the undoubted cleverness of the plot as being all a little shallow. Where Hitchcock can excel though is in manipulating the audience's sympathies. Despite her extra-marital affair, we naturally hold our affections with Margot, after all who would want to kill Grace Kelly, but when the action switches in the second half of the film, who hasn't watched and hoped that Tony Wendice, a man who after all is allowing his wife to be executed for a crime she didn't commit, does indeed manage to outwit and outsmart his pursuers? (a trick Hitchcock had used before and would use again).This is helped no end by Millard's performance, at once charming but frightening, funny but reptillian and he's probably the best thing in the movie. The script is not a great one, it has to be said, but in Hitchcock's expert hands it translates into a great film.
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