Dial M for Murder

Almost fifteen years before the release of Wait Until Dark (1967), based on Frederick Knott's tightly-written stage play, Knott penned the play and screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's classic mystery Dial M for Murder (1954). DMfM prefigures the style used to great effect in Wait Until Dark. Because the vast majority of the film is set in a single room of a London flat, the focus for the film must lie on the intricate relationships among characters, the razor sharp dialogue, and the complexity of the ever-changing scheme laid out by Tony Wendice (Ray Milland, bearing a striking resemblance to Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo, both in appearance and character).

Wendice, an aging British tennis star, suspects his wife Margot (Grace Kelly) of dallying with Mark Halliday, a dashing American crime fiction writer. Tony hatches an amateurish revenge plan of blackmail and extortion that slowly evolves into a sleek and sophisticated plot to murder his wife and collect on a generous inheritance. But when things go awry with Tony's fall guy, Tony's got to do some lightning quick thinking to keep the ball up in the air and his chances of inheritance alive. But has he accounted for everything? Will his ever-changing story hold water or will proudly mustachioed and drolly British Inspector Hubbard sniff out the hole in his plan?

DMfM is a low-key yet highly complex mystery/thriller, rivaled only by Hitchcock's masterpiece Vertigo (1958) in terms of twists and turns. Yet the mystery here is not of the traditional murder mystery kind. Who killed who and why is not the central theme. Those variables are already laid out on the table. Instead, Hitchcock takes a psychological gamble: he makes the audience complicit in Tony's murderous scheme, even to the point where you find yourself rooting for him. After all, he has shown great dedication in incubating his plan for well over a year, and great mental acumen in quickly reacting to any number of unfavorable situations and managing to turn every bit of damning evidence to his advantage. And through it all, Wendice is cool, calm, charismatic, even quite funny: in short, the archetype of the British villain later exemplified on screen by such greats as David Warner, Alan Rickman, and Jeremy Irons.

Measuring greatness by influence, imitation, and parody, Dial M for Murder is decidedly one of the greatest. Its influence ranges from the (albeit extremely inferior) quasi-remake A Perfect Murder (1998), to a couple of Brian De Palma imitators, Obsession (1976) and Body Double (1984), to numerous television and film homages and parodies, including Mel Brooks's High Anxiety (1977), "The Simpsons," and "Third Rock from the Sun." This one definitely joins the pantheon of Hitchcock must-sees.

Storyline & plot: 9/10
Cinematography & effects: 6/10
Music & mood: 8/10
Performances: 9/10

The Reverend says: 9/10