DIAL M FOR MURDER
DIAL M FOR MURDER
A Hitchcockian contemplation of the perfect crime. Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) hires an assassin to murder his unfaithful wife (Grace Kelly). The plan goes haywire when the woman kills the assailant in self-defense. Her lover and a detective must unravel the intrigue before it's too late. The film was produced in both 2D and 3D versions.
Is there such a thing as the perfect crime? Alfred Hitchcock has explored this question on screen multiple times - from the film ROPE to STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. In this case, he also delves into the myth of the perfect crime, exposing to the viewer the factor of unfathomable fate. Here comes Tony Wendice - one of the few screen villains who combines wickedness with charisma and elegance befitting a British lord - as he plans the murder of his wealthy, unfaithful wife. He blackmails an old acquaintance from college to sneak into his home under the cover of darkness and kill Mrs. Wendice. The man is told to wait until the victim comes out of the bedroom to answer the phone. The meticulously detailed plan entails that the woman will be awoken by Tony himself who will call his wife from a bar, providing himself an alibi. Can anything stand in the way of the perfect murder? The delicate blonde conceals far more strength than meets the eye and in her defence, deprives her attacker of his life, attracting the attention of suspicious detectives.
The film marked the beginning of Hitchcock's collaboration with his ideal blonde, the future Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly, whose passionate and spirited femininity is broken by the patriarchal system as the plot unfolds. This process is skillfully depicted through the change in costumes, mirroring the deteriorating mental condition of the heroine: from the red lace dress in the early scenes of the work to the minimalist, grey suit worn after the traumatic assault. The stellar cast is complemented by Ray Milland (Oscar winner for his role in the drama THE LOST WEEKEND), who played years ago in Hitchcock's SABOTAGE, Robert Cummings, and John Williams as the sharp detective Hubbard. It is worth adding that this gripping work was produced in both 2D and 3D versions.
What builds the atmosphere of the adaptation of Frederick Knott's play are brilliantly written characters, witty dialogue, and the subtle but disturbing sounds of Dimitri Tiomkin's music. The claustrophobic atmosphere is fueled by the restriction of the setting to one flat, something that the English director would repeat with the voyeuristic REAR WINDOW (1954). As is typical of Hitchcock - crime and death go hand in hand with the adventures of a love triangle. Freudian drives play the first fiddle: Eros and Thanatos.
Paula Apanowicz
