DIAL M FOR MURDER [1954] review
April 1, 2011 · Print This Article
When one cleanses their palette by watching a movie like DIAL M FOR MURDER by Alfred Hitchcock (my favorite director), one realizes just how much unnecessary filler is layered upon modern movies just to make them slightly tolerably watchable. I was surprised to see the budget for making DIAL M was about $1.4 million. I guess most of that was paid to the actors and Hitchcock himself as there was basically only one set and zero special effects. Perhaps the most money should have gone to the writer Frederick Knott for adapting his play into such a suspenseful tale that produces emotions one just does not feel in movies made in this century. Oh, and Grace Kelly is a stunningly beautiful woman, which such class and presence, although she does play a woman who has an affair that drives her husband to murderous ideas.
In typical Hitchcock fashion the main characters are introduced in benign fashion. Outward appearances very rarely betray inner feelings in a Hitchcock movie, especially in the first act. I found it hard to keep track of the exposition being given in the first few minutes of the movie as you just do not see radiance like Grace Kelly has on screen anymore.
All the innocence is gone quite soon though as Kelly’s husband is not as in the dark as he would let on and is very aware of her affair. So aware that he has concocted an ingenious plan for the perfect murder, of his wife. The setup for this is great.
Obviously the murder cannot go as perfectly as planned, with what actually happens being very surprising to me. Basically, one clever pot introduced in the beginning gets funneled into a perhaps even more clever plot. There is suspense all around both plots.
Will the police inspector being able to unravel everything in time or has the murder plotter been too careful to ever be found out?
DIAL M is as good as an analog suspense film can get. Imagine everything almost getting ruined because windup watches do not keep reliable time! That’s what is great about old movies.
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