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Dial M for Murder (1954)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 2/06, 1/25

Dial
2/06: Dial M for Murder is a quintessential Hitchcock thriller.

The acting, the plot, the direction, and the pace are impeccable. Ray Milland and John Williams turn in outstanding performances while Grace Kelly isn't bad.

The theory may sound perfect on paper, but in reality, it never works out exactly as planned. It's an axiom that most people cannot grasp. The ending is brilliant, placing the final stamp on the film as a masterpiece.

All in all, chalk up Dial M for Murder in Alfred Hitchcock's oeuvre of must-see pictures.

1/25: That's why I watch many movies at least twice, and the result is a downgrade in my rating from '10 to '3' for Dial M for Murder.

What a boring movie to sit through. The more of a chatterbox Ray Milland's character is, the greater my urge is to dial K five times on the rotary phone as in "Mr. Hitchcock, you're k-k-k-k-killing me!" The script is convoluted and technically boring. If we want to get to the bottom of the mystery, it's about the keys; everything else doesn't matter, hence the terrific ending.

I don't buy the premise for a minute. There's no way that Grace Kelly's character would've been tried and sentenced to death for the crime. What's her motive after all? Has anyone considered that there might be three...four...five or more keys in existence? She has ligature marks around her neck which aren't easy to produce if done alone. Also, impossible to believe is somebody as beautiful as she would be married to Tony Wendice, an old-looking chap who's never believable for the slightest minute, no matter how glib he can be.

How about when Anthony Dawson's character was stabbed in the back with scissors? It's not going to kill him, but the way he reacted makes it seem like he had passed out and stupidly fell to his own death. Hardly likely. The most realistic outcome will be feeling for what's embedded deeply in his back to wrestle it out, even if he has to sit down for a minute. Incidentally, Alfred Hitchcock makes a cameo appearance not in the flesh but in a black-and-white photograph along with Ray Milland and Anthony Dawson.

All in all, Dial M for Murder may look great and all that, but let's be real: it's a very talky staged play.