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Dial M for Murder
RRP: £12.99
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Editorial
Product Description
Classic Hitchcock movie starring Grace Kelly & Ray Milland. Ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice decides to murder his wife for her money and because she had an affair the year before. He blackmails an old college associate to strangle her, but when things go wrong he sees a way to turn events to his advantage.
Mind you, even I didn't guess that at once...
Review date: 2008-08-18 Rating: 8 out of 10
One of two plays that Hitchock ever adapted for the big screen (Rope was the other), Dial M For Murder isn't one of Hitchcock's true great flims, but it is a very entertaining piece of work.
It relvolves around an elaborate, and perhaps it's TOO elaborate, plot by ex-tennis player Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) to have his wife Margot (played by the exquisite Grace Kelly) killed after she's had an affair with Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings).
Given time constraints, relatively little re-writing was done for the screen which meant that the London setting was left intact as were the British nationality of the characters. This does mean however that the film is very heavy on dialogue, and it does sometimes betray the undoubted cleverness of the plot as being all a little shallow.
Where Hitchcock can excel though is in manipulating the audience's sympathies. Despite her extra-marital affair, we naturally hold our affections with Margot, after all who would want to kill Grace Kelly, but when the action switches in the second half of the film, who hasn't watched and hoped that Tony Wendice, a man who after all is allowing his wife to be executed for a crime she didn't commit, does indeed manage to outwit and outsmart his pursuers? (a trick Hitchcock had used before and would use again).This is helped no end by Millard's performance, at once charming but frightening, funny but reptillian and he's probably the best thing in the movie.
The script is not a great one, it has to be said, but in Hitchcock's expert hands it translates into a great film.
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Reviews
Riveting and full of suspense!
Review date: 2008-08-15 Rating: 10 out of 10
One of the most absorbing and suspenseful of Hitchcock movies ever! No matter how many times this is viewed, it's still as fresh and as riveting as the first time around!
Ray Milland plays a husband who's been cheated upon by his rich wife. To get his revenge upon she and her lover, and to acquire his 'premature' inheritance, he plans her murder - but things go terribly wrong when everything backfires, and all over the most minute of details...
Grace Kelly stars as the unfortunate 'target', and Anthony Dawson plays the unusually 'nice' and handsome murderer to be (he can strangle me anytime!!) The reactions of some of the characters in this film are startlingly 'natural'. A classic example is how after being 'coerced' into the act, the would-be murderer is unable to look his victim in the eye whilst attempting to carry it out - a clever little detail!
Also stars John Williams and a 'bit part' for Patrick Allen.
Fantastic feature!
Never upstaged...
Review date: 2008-07-26 Rating: 8 out of 10
Let's start with the downside of this Hitchcock adaptation: it comes from a stage play and looks stagey. Barely opened out at all, this is decidedly at the low end of Hitch's creative scale, in spite of the 3D gimmick used to sell this film at the box office.
Why, you might ask, might the most inventive of film directors take such a low key approach to such rich material? Probably because he placed his faith in two things: the strength of Frederick Knott's original stage play and the cast to deliver the goods (and with the likes of Milland and Kelly, who can blame him?) Quite correctly, he decided that the greater risk was to over-egg the pudding; the evidence in the Michael Douglas film A Perfect Murder ("loosely inspired" by Dial M) is palpable.
The good side of this equation is that Hitch has done the job. A gloriously old-fashioned thriller, and none the worse for that. From the audience perspective, it works as a mystery. The red herrings are subtly wafted before our noses and deflect us from the blatantly obvious. And the action of the abortive murder attempt on Grace Kelly is handled in the way only the maestro could possibly muster (imagine that in 3D.)
Not a great work, but a notable sideline in a career starred with genius. Don't knock it!
Grace Under Pressure
Review date: 2008-03-11 Rating: 8 out of 10
I think this one of Hitchcock's better films, set in 1950's London, specifically the Little Venice/Maida Vale area where I used to live myself, though the film may show an outlying part which has, perhaps, been redeveloped since the film was made, though the house may be in the crescent off Clifton Gardens, seeing the red bus passing down that larger road). Grace Kelly plays the detached or, more bluntly, unfaithful wife of Ray Milland. The American lover, a "friend of the couple", turns up and they all play stiff upper lips and black ties (not Grace Kelly: she wears the sort of ultra-feminine dresses women wore then and looks superb). A black sheep ex-Cambridge acquaintance of Milland, turned used car dealer, conspires with Milland to kill Grace, only to be killed off himself as wily Milland tries to get his wife into terminal trouble. The police detective inspector is as well-spoken as his quarry or quarries in this very British film production, the twists of the plot keeping the interest right to the end. Well worth seeing anytime.
Quick Reviews!
Review date: 2007-09-28 Rating: 8 out of 10
Possible Spoilers
This is a top rate suspense film from Hitchcok featuring many memorable moments, and some very strong performances from Kelly, Milland, and Williams. With a brilliantly executed plot and twisting story, this is one of the most impressively constructed films of the time.
Kelly stars as Margot, an unhappily married woman who has been seeing crime writer Mark behind her husband's back. Her husband Tony is an ex tennis star whose wealth is slowly draining. Mark is an American, and is travelling over to visit the couple in London. However, Tony has known for a year that his wife has been with Mark. Tony concocts an ingenious plan to murder his wife, blackmailing an old college friend into doing it, and getting his wife's money in the process. It is the perfect plan, as Tony believes there is nothing to link him to the murder- a burglary gone wrong while he is not even at the house. However, the murder goes wrong, and Swann, his old friend is killed by Margot in self defence. The police are eventually informed, but not before Tony has come up with an even more impressive plan which will see his wife framed for the murder. Enter the Sherlock Holmes like Inspector Hubbard whose intuition and genius, along with the help of Mark's crime writing paranoia lead to the truth.
There are so many twists in this film that the viewer is completely led in circles by the director. Aside from the brilliantly constructed plot, special mention must go to Williams as Hubbard, whose tongue-in-cheek performance steals every scene he is in. Like Hitchcock, he is in control of the characters and deftly unravels the crime. This should not be overlooked because of Hitchcock's bigger, more familiar hits as this is one of his best.
Not much in the ways of extras on the disk, but a must for Hitchcock fans and one to try for all movie lovers
Product Details/Specifications
Recording label: Warner Bros.
Manufacturer: Warner Bros.
Model: Z1 11156
EAN: 7321900111560
Binding: DVD
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-02-04
Audience rating: To Be Announced
Region code: 2