Alfred Hitchcock's--Dial 'M' For Murder-1954

In case you are interested in one of the best constructed one-room movies made in several decades, Dial 'M' for Murder has to qualify for at least one of the top ten. Unusual for Hitchcock, this is a mystery pure and simple, and it isn’t even that hard! But it manages to keep your attention through every moment, and is thoroughly entertaining. It is a masterwork of Hitchcock construction with a cast that can’t be beat.

For anyone who needs to see the flash of knives or the discharging of firearms, this is probably not your movie-although there is a bit of that. But to compensate we get Grace Kelly, beautiful mysterious, and wonderful in a role that would seem to have no more to it than a simple part of a plot. Got your attention yet? No? Well how about a sinister Ray Milland? OK, I see I’m going to have to convince you the hard way!

SPECIFICS FOR THIS MOVIE

First of all, this is only available in VHS, although it is available. Warner Brothers Classic Movies released this version. Alas. I would love to see what digital enhancement could do for this one!

The story was adapted from a successful stage play of Frederick Knott, who also wrote the screenplay. The movie was released again as a remake in 1998 as A Perfect Murder. As is often true, the original beats the remake hands down. The music by Academy Award winning composer Dmitri Tiomkin is perfect for this compactly designed movie, with proper silences included. Some of the lyrical themes are beautifully performed .

Technical stuff about this movie in particular

This one was an experiment in 3D vision, something that never really took off in 1954, or in 1980 when it was re-released with the same 3D features. What it results in for us, the present day audience, is a still often more realistic view of everyday scenarios. It doesn’t so much frame the scene as it does scoop out a line of vision, making the foreground objects blur as you focus in on the mid range camera shot, just like you are in the room. It doesn’t increase the feeling of depth and dimension without the magic glasses, but it makes the whole thing look slightly skewed, and slightly unbalanced, a feeling which does not hinder the tone of the film in the slightest.

Occasionally however, the 3 D shooting seen as a flat film it takes INTENDED dramatic emphasis away from foreground objects. An example of this occurs when we see in an early scene, Grace Kelly seated with a vase of fresh cut flowers between the audience and her seated figure, and again, when she reaches in desperation, for an object to defend herself.

For the rest of this review, I am just going to discuss the characters, and how Hitchcock directed them . It should tie in all the elements, and hopefully make you want to see the movie to find out more.

SCENE SETTING

Let me give you this brief scenario. We have an ex tennis star and his independently wealthy wife, her boyfriend, and an old school buddy of the tennis pro. Oh yes, and we have the police inspector. And the majority of the film takes place in just one room, the living quarters of the man and the woman. The characters shall be introduced in order of their appearance.


Margot Mary Wendice (Grace Kelly), wife of Tony Wendice. In the first scene we see her receiving a perfunctory good morning kiss, from her husband. She is wearing white, and is the picture of matrimonial propriety, as she settles in to read the morning paper. Her eyes shift slyly, and we read the article she is reading. The Queen Mary is arriving from America, and someone is on it. In the next scene, she is wearing a brilliantly beautiful BRIGHT red dress, and she is kissing Mark, a writer of crime stories (for television, for his sins) from America. This is a passionate kiss, and the red dress is movie language for ‘fallen woman’. Our Margot is tainted. She is as the trailer says “ a married woman with a two party line to her heart”.

But then she sits apart from Mark and tells him the affair is ‘over’. A vase of flowers, Hitchcock slang for purity and beauty, partially blocks her from our vision. So we see our Margot is a woman with a past, but essentially has integrity.. She is an independently wealthy lady, married to an ex-tennis pro. Her demeanor will change, and change dramatically before the movie is over. Even her clothing will become progressively muted, and when she is at her lowest point, drained of will and numb to all pain, she is dressed in gray and muted browns.

Grace Kelly had a BIG year in 1954. She starred in 5 pictures, including Rear Window, with Jimmy Stewart, and The Country Girl, for which she won an academy award. It would be two years before she retired from Hollywood to become a Princess. Her background was as a wealthy kid from Philadelphia, and a modeling career. Her performance in High Noon with Gary Cooper, though, paved the way for this brilliant year in Hollywood.

She is an excellent intuitive actress, and quite beautiful as well. There is nothing here to fault. The character was complex, although she is throughout the intended object of first murder, blackmail, and intrigue, we are told from the start that her sin was falling in love with a man who she was determined to forsake to make her marriage work. Her confrontation with the murderer was spine tingling in 3D, and the sensation stays with you even in the flat version.


Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) the ex tennis pro-Handsome, sophisticated, clever in ways we can barely imagine. He has learned about his wife’s infidelities, but instead of responding to it when he learned (a year previous) he decides to give up tennis and get a job, and make his marriage (on which he depends for his upkeep ) work, taking a low paying job selling sports equipment.
But he begins to plot a way to murder his wife...and an intricate plot it is.

It involves an old “school friend” who was caught embezzling the alumni fund, and he has been gathering information on his shady dealings for a year-to blackmail him into murdering his wife.

The man is not completely unsympathetic to the audience. After all, his wife WAS cheating him, and he DID need her money. After all, playing tennis in the 50's was a wonderful way for a man without means to maintain his position without working-what did he know of making money? We are given hints of this awareness of money in nearly every scene. In the first meeting of the triangle, he sends his wife and her ‘lover’ off to the theater, telling Mark to sell the extra ticket for drinks.

We find he is resilient and improvisational as well when Plan A fails, and he schemes his way to another happy (for him ) ending .He maintains that politeness and affability throughout and only once or twice to we see that tight control break, but when it does, it is unmistakable. Watch him as he watches Margot and Mark together. He was an extremely good dresser.

Milland was 47 years old when this movie was released, Grace Kelly was 25. But he is believable in this role, and this movie proved that he had not lost much in charm and charisma. He was as good a villain as one could get-although he could as easily have been the good guy. He had been in movies since 1930, and won as Oscar in 1946 for Lost Weekend.


Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings) This is the “other man” who is American, a writer of crime stories for televison (egad!) Who obviously still loves the other guys wife. Even when she tells him that she is determined to give her marriage a go, he hangs on, on the strength of a love letter he wrote, that she couldn’t bring herself to burn, and has been stolen and used by some blackguard to blackmail her.

Because she is determined to make her marriage work, she pays the money, but no one picks it up. She gives the blackmail letters to Mark, drawing him inextricably into the intrigue .

Tony plans to use a party , taking Mark with him, to cover for the murder he was arranging. (Fitting punishment for the man who cuckolded him.)As it plays out further, Mark stays the faithful friend of the nearly murdered Margot, and then beyond...but that is a whole different part of this story. I urge you to watch it for yourself. Mark is direct, fairly humorless, and ever the faithful lover suspicious of his rival. Because he is a crime writer, he meddles in the investigation for some humorous moments. He dresses casually, is open and direct, and passionate-all the things our Tony is not.

Cummings , who made his initial career on the stage as a fictitious British actor “Blade Stanhope” and later came to Hollywood as a wealthy Texan , only later revealing his real name, was a talented actor that is most remembered for his B-movies and comedic roles. But he was excellent in this movie, and if anyone is the audience observer, it is this guy, who mirrors our morbid fascination at the level of intrigue.

Captain Lesgate, AKA. C.A.Swan, (Anthony Dawson) This is the Cambridge friend of Wendice, who Tony has 'the goods' on. We know from the beginning that he is a man of ill repute, merely by the poorly fitting suit, and his dark demeanor. Even his accent is not the polished fluid tones of the aristocracy, and has a coarser cockney twang. He is a reluctant villain, and acts as he feel he must, which does not diminish his determination to do his part.
He has, we find out, murdered before. So it won’t be a conscience problem, made sweeter by a fee of a thousand pounds. He plot goes awry through no fault of his own. He makes his struggle melodramatic but believably awkward. This actor had played numerous characters of ill repute in the movies, it seemed to be his destiny. A perfect choice for this movie. I loved the scene where he paces out every move of the murder that is plotted.


Chief Inspector Hubbard (John Williams)-This character is introduced in the second half of the story, as he plays verbal games with Tony, and investigates the events, even though the case was over, even having gone to trial . He was endearing, and wonderfully funny, and clever-easily my favorite character in this movie. He is the prototype Columbo, with a British accent. My favorite line of his is"

“I know it was highly irregular, but my BLOOD was up!”.

This actor played a lot of British officers, policemen and the like. And he played them well.

The moment this movie gets really interesting is the moment that we see the telephone call that was to signal the time for the “M” word, as Hitch takes us through the exchange station, watching the signal being transmitted to the phone on the other end in the middle of a scene filmed in the dark at the apartment, with the barest light, heightening intrigue and tension . Brilliantly done.


FINAL RECOMMENDATION


This is a classic stage play that still works for movies. I loved every moment of it, and I watch it at least once a month. Watch it for Grace Kelly, and Ray Milland, and for the great editing and Hitchcock touches. The cast is limited, but not by ability.