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DVD Dial M for Murder
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
Same deal,
Instead of an LA cop fumbling around hiding his astronomical IQ and his dectection acuity, Hitchcock uses a Brit.
The audience knows the guilty party and so does the Brit cop intuitively right from the moment he opens the 3-D door in your face.
Murderously charming...
I've always thought Ray Milland was a fine actor, even though his choice of roles could, generously, be called eclectic; which is probably why we can enjoy him in this production, as well as such diverse offerings as the Noir Classic "The Big clock," "Lost Weekend," for which he deservedly won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a raging alcoholic, as well as "The Man With X-Ray Eyes," and... "The Thing With Two Heads!" But for me, the part of "Tony Wendice" in Hitchcock's "Dial M For Murder" is the quintessential Milland role, suave, debonair, urbane, and utterly, ruthlessly, murderously, charming!
Frederick Knott, adapting his own stage production, wrote the screenplay, and Hitchcock wisely chose to film the material "straight," without opening it up too much, but with one startling exception, which I'll come to later. As befits a stage production, the vast majority of "Dial M" takes place in just one location, Tony and Margot Wendice's living room, located in a genteel suburb of 1950's London.
The plot is deceptively simple; Tony is a retired Tennis Pro, being more-or-less supported by his wife Margot, played by a luminous Grace Kelly in an early film role. Tony's career meant that he was away for extended periods of time, playing in various tournaments, and during one of his absences Margot fell head-over-heals in love with an American writer visiting London. That was a year ago, and since then Tony has cold-bloodedly plotted to kill his wife, all the while playing the part of the devoted husband. But after a chance encounter he decides to blackmail an old acquaintance, a vaguely seedy con-man and womanizer, into committing the crime for him by following Tony's plan to the letter, a plan he claims is the "Perfect Murder."
Oh but it were; the plan may well have been perfect, but its execution - sorry! - is anything but. In a superbly staged scene the murder is bungled, and Tony arrives home to his shocked and near hysterical wife, very much alive, and the dead body of her assailant stretched out on the living room floor. Now you can see the wheels turning as a desperate Tony has to come up with a "Plan B" on the fly, and with the police on their way. As I said earlier, this is the quintessential Milland, and he plays the part of Tony with such relish and aplomb, that before you know it, you find yourself rooting for the cad; he's still trying to kill-off his wife, and you can't help hoping he gets away with it... an amazing performance!!!
"Dial M" has always been one of my favorite Hitchcock films; he seems to excel when working under almost impossible, self-imposed, restrictions. For other examples see the superlative "Rope" with James Stewart, and what is probably the most extreme example, the magnificent "Lifeboat" with Tallulah Bankhead. Here, as in the other two examples, we have a nail-biting thriller set in just one location, although there are a couple of external shots and a very brief, heavily stylized, "courtroom" scene.
But what sets this film apart from every other Hitchcock production is that it was made in 3D, a decision that was, apparently, forced on the director by the studio to cash in on the briefly popular craze. I'm lucky enough to have seen "Dial M" in the theatre in 3D, and while the main use of the process was usually to generate a cheap scare or giggle for the audience, Hitch made it his own by employing it with subtly and care.
Unlike almost all other 3D films from that time there're no monsters shambling towards us, no spears, chairs, or flaming meteors bursting from the screen. As you watch the film "flat" you'll notice that the camera often moves around the room looking "up" at the cast, and there's invariably a piece of furniture, a dresser or a table with a vase on it for instance, between the actor and the audience. Watching the film in 3D is really quite amazing, by taking this subtle approach Hitch is able to put us right into the room with the cast, and I often found myself trying to look "around" the furniture at the characters!
The one scene where Hitch really lets rip with the technique is the famous murder scene, where Margot is reaching behind her for the pair of scissors - there's a representation of the scene on the DVD cover artwork - and her hand appears to be coming out of the screen at you! (It's a shame that a 3D version of this film hasn't been issued on DVD, I'm sure that it would fit on a dual layer disc.)
Grace Kelly does sterling work as the betrayed Margot, Anthony Dawson is effective as "Swann" the murderer, although Robert Cummings is unfortunately bland as Margot's boyfriend "Mark." The only other actor who really shines is John Williams as "Chief Inspector Hubbard," who pays a visit to clear up a few details the following day. Williams' Hubbard is terribly "British," does not suffer fools gladly, and instinctively knows that the initial story of a killer coming in through the garden windows is a lie. Just as in Milland's portrayal, you can see the gears turning as he reasons events through; rather like Sherlock Holmes he discards what cannot be, and then by a process of deduction and elimination, whatever is left, no matter how improbable it seems, has to be the truth!
As I've indicated already, the film belongs to Milland, and the final scene where Tony discovers that the game is most certainly up will leave you smiling and shaking your head at the sheer nerve of the character, as that "murderous charm" shines like a thousand suns!!! This is a perfect gem of a film, "classic" Hitchcock, and I would recommend it highly.
I agree with DeRiemer's nitpicking
Scissors would only have scratched the back of Sheila's attacker when swung from the angle she was at. It would have been better if a paper spike had been left on the desk, which would have got in deep enough at first for her to have pressed it home with a little subsequent twisting. It would have been a believably lethal weapon, like an ice pick. A shot or shots of Tony recklessly slamming bills and receipts down on it early in the film would have nicely foreshadowed coming events.
As for swapping Cummings and Milland, that's an adventurous thought that MIGHT have worked. (But it's hard to see Cummings so convincingly twisting the arm of the hired killer he'd recruited. Reviews rarely give adequate credit to this lengthy scene and the actor who played the killer, because it's not in the mainline of the plot, but it's a high point of the movie.) It's too bad Hitch didn't shoot the film BOTH ways, and given us a film with two psychological viewing angles, not just 3D's two physical angles.
One additional cavil is that there was too little information given on the married life of Tony & Sheila. What had so alienated Sheila from Tony that she'd begun an affair? Why did the American version lack any mention (that I recall) of Sheila's considering a divorce--and what were her reasons for this? Had Tony given her reasons to suspect he'd been unfaithful, perhaps before she decided to become adventurous too? Etc. There should have been a scene where Sheila and Mark talked such things over, to give us more of a feel for the marriage's emotional context and historical background. The film is a plot-driven puzzler that fails to involve the audience sufficiently because of its slighting of such matters. (But it still rates five stars.)
A second adventurous change that might have improved the movie would have been to let the viewers see the would-be murderer entering the flat and then slipping the key back under the staircase carpet. That way they'd be "clued in" to the central surprise-element in the plot, which normally is a big No-No. But here it might have worked, because the complexity of the plot is too great for most viewers to make sense of after the fact. Inspector Hubbard's explanation of the latchkey-switcheroo to Mark didn't really clear away the fog--most viewers were left more dazed than enlightened. (And this may have been the reason the film wasn't quite the hit it should have been. It didn't get enough word-of-mouth recommendations.)
I wonder if Hitch did shoot some just-in-case footage showing the door being opened and the key being replaced--in which case a version incorporating it could be included on the DVD; or the viewer could be given the option at the critical point to watch or not watch a "giveaway" scene, and the DVD software could then automatically splice it in. Even if Hitch didn't shoot it, that scene could actually be shot today, in semi-darkness and from a distance (from the front doorway), showing only the back of an actor of about the same dimensions as the original actor, and it would be adequate. I think most viewers would enjoy the movie more despite being "in the know" about the surprise ending.
Here's a wild idea: digitally edit the film to include the changes suggested above and re-release it as "Dial 'N' for Murder"! (N standing for New.) The viewer could chose to see either the old or new version (containing three scenes replacing old scenes). In the new version the scene where the scissors are placed on the desk would be cut, and the scissors on the desk in subsequent scenes would be digitally erased, while a paper spike would be superimposed. The hard part would be to digitally reanimate Mark & Margot talking for half a minute (extending their conversation while Tony is out of the room briefly), enabling them to provide the audience with key background info on the marriage situation and their feelings about it and each other.
There are probably other films that would appeal to a broader audience if they came with alternative plot twists and endings. (Akin to the appeal of "alternative history.") Call the alternative version(s) "Consumers' Cuts." I bet consumers' cuts could improve quite a few movies, although more changes would be needed to some of the sow's ears out there than the tiny tweaks I've suggested to this masterpiece.
Like the Greenwich Village courtyard view from its titular portal, Alfred Hitchcock's classic Rear Window is both confined and multileveled: both its story and visual perspective are dictated by its protagonist's imprisonment in his apartment, convalescing in a wheelchair, from which both he and the audience observe the lives of his neighbors. Cheerful voyeurism, as well as the behavior glimpsed among the various tenants, affords a droll comic atmosphere that gradually darkens when he sees clues to what may be a murder.
Photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) is, in fact, a voyeur by trade, a professional photographer sidelined by an accident while on assignment. His immersion in the human drama (and comedy) visible from his window is a by-product of boredom,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Grace Kelly - James Stewart DVD Release Date: Released the 06 March 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Repeated viewings can't dispel the shock of the final scene in this classic 1941 romantic mystery--a brief but disorienting confrontation that suddenly inverts the heroine's mounting conviction that she's married a murderer, forcing us to reconsider virtually every scene and line of dialogue that's preceded it. It's a masterful coup de grace for director Alfred Hitchcock, who has built a puzzle around the corrosive power of suspicion, threaded with deft ambiguities that toy with dramatic conventions and character archetypes in nearly every frame.
As embodied by Joan Fontaine, who nabbed an Oscar in this second outing with the director, Lina McLaidlaw is a buttoned-up, bookish heiress whose prim exterior conceals longings for a more engaged emotional life. Her solution materializes in... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Joan Fontaine - Cary Grant Director(s): Alfred Hitchcock DVD Release Date: Released the 07 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Although it wasn't a box-office success when originally released in 1958, Vertigo has since taken its deserved place as Alfred Hitchcock's greatest, most spellbinding, most deeply personal achievement. In fact, it consistently ranks among the top 10 movies ever made in the once-a-decade Sight & Sound international critics poll, placing at number 4 in the most recent survey. (Universal Pictures' spectacularly gorgeous 1996 restoration and rerelease of this 1958 Paramount production was a tremendous success with the public, too.) James Stewart plays a retired police detective who is hired by an old friend to follow his wife (a superb Kim Novak, in what becomes a double role), whom he suspects of being possessed by the spirit of a dead madwoman. The detective and the disturbed... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kim Novak - James Stewart DVD Release Date: Released the 31 March 1998 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 remake of his own 1934 spy thriller is an exciting event in its own right, with several justifiably famous sequences. James Stewart and Doris Day play American tourists who discover more than they wanted to know about an assassination plot. When their son is kidnapped to keep them quiet, they are caught between concern for him and the terrible secret they hold. When asked about the difference between this version of the story and the one he made 22 years earlier, Hitchcock always said the first was the work of a talented amateur while the second was the act of a seasoned professional. Indeed, several extraordinary moments in this update represent consummate filmmaking, particularly a relentlessly exciting Albert Hall scene, with a blaring symphony, an assassin's... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Stewart - Doris Day Director(s): Alfred Hitchcock DVD Release Date: Released the 06 March 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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