Grace Kelly. It's the work of a master enjoying his script. Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Subsequently she was blackmailed, but she had never retrieved the stolen letter. Swann must strangle Margot when she answers the phone, open the French doors, leave signs that would trick the police into believing that a burglary had gone wrong, and then exit through the front door before hiding the key under the stair carpet again. Meanwhile Tony calls Captain Lesgate (aka Charles Alexander Swann who studied with him at college) and blackmails him to murder his wife, so that he can inherit her fortune. Dial M for Murder features a brilliant script that constantly moves. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. STARRING. I do wish Hitchcock could have done better with his back-projection unit (an old-fashioned, jarring trait he still hadn't grown out of by "Marnie" some 10 years later) and I occasionally found the constant too frivolous background music an intrusion, but it's well paced throughout, helped considerably by an on-form cast.Ray Milland is excellent in a kind of darker Cary Grant type persona, Grace Kelly (who'd want to murder her?) [20], As it is considered one of the classic examples of a stage thriller, it has been revived a number of times since, including a US TV film in 1981 with Angie Dickinson and Christopher Plummer. With Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams. Deducing that the money was Tony's intended payoff to Swann, Mark stops Hubbard from leaving and explains his theory. Comedy. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. [23] The film also inspired a Malayalam-language adaptation as New Year starring Jayaram, Urvashi and Suresh Gopi in 1989. 1 hr 45 min. Dial M for Murder However, there were problems with the script and budget, and Hitchcock and Bernstein decided to dissolve their partnership. Meanwhile Tony calls Captain Lesgate (aka Charles Alexander Swann who studied with him at college) and blackmails him to murder his wife, so that he can inherit her fortune. Ray Milland. The characters are fitted to their situations, and hardly exist in themselves (nor are they enlivened by the rather drab performances of Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings); only John Williams' dry, sardonic police inspector has a touch of individuality. Mark's name was changed for the film; in the original play, he was Max Halliday. When he returns to the flat, he calls the police and sends a distraught Margot to bed. A treat for the eyes and exercise for the brain, "Dial M For Murder" is Hitchcock's second "drawing-room perfect murder" movie, after "Rope", the latter a darker and more sinister affair altogether. In Dial M for Murder, he can be seen thirteen minutes into the film, in a black-and-white reunion photograph, sitting at a banquet table among former students and faculty. Thriller. Before the police arrive, Tony moves what he thinks is Margot's latchkey from Swann's pocket into her handbag, plants Mark's letter on Swann, and destroys Swann's scarf, replacing it with Margot's own stocking in an attempt to incriminate her. Now, correctly suspecting Tony of having conspired with Swann, Hubbard had developed an elaborate ruse to confirm this. After one preview performance on May 18 and four showings on the 19th, a Philadelphia theater manager frantically contacted the studio and said that people were staying away in droves. Suave, cold-blooded Ray Milland plots to murder his beautiful wife (Grace Kelly), leaving the key to their apartment outside for his hired killer (Anthony Dawson). Dial M was their first project together; they would make two more films, Rear Window (1954) and To Catch a Thief (1955) before Miss Kelly became Princess Grace of Monaco and retired from the screen in 1956. [5] The film earned an estimated $2.7 million in North American box office sales in 1954.[6]. DIAL M FOR MURDER remains Frederick Knott's most successful work, produced with great box-office draw on Broadway, made into a popular Hitchcock film, remade for TV several times, and still a staple of high school and amateur companies. Title: Hitchcock himself in interviews played down the quality of this movie, amongst other other things indicating that it was treated almost as a warm-up for the more ambitious "Rear Window" which immediately followed it in his career.However. When Mark arrives from America to visit the couple, Margot tells him that she had destroyed all his letters but one that was stolen. Whereupon business at the Randolph took a turn for the better. ‘Ragdoll’: Henry Lloyd-Hughes & Thalissa Teixeira Join Lucy Hale In AMC Crime Drama Series, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Thalissa Teixeira Join Lucy Hale in AMC, Alibi Series ‘Ragdoll’, Inside Line: Scoop on Chicago Fire, Supergirl, The Resident, All American, Amlt, Debris, Roswell and More. A former police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with a hauntingly beautiful woman. To Tony's consternation, Mark's "story" is very close to what did actually happen: that Tony bribed Swann to murder Margot. A psychopath forces a tennis star to comply with his theory that two strangers can get away with murder. After Swann agrees, Tony explains his plan: the following evening, he will go with Mark to a party, leaving Margot at home while hiding her latchkey under the carpet of the staircase facing the front door of their flat. PG. "This is a technical triumph that Hitchcock has achieved," wrote Bosley Crowther of The New York Times in a favourable review. From shop bySvoon. He has them—and the best of the lot is John Williams, late of the stage play, who is the detective who solves the sinister ruse. Hubbard arrests Margot after concluding that she killed Swann for blackmailing her. On May 23, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the "first audiences proved to be a jury that could not only make up its mind, but could make it up in a hurry. John Williams. In 1958 the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) aired a television film in which Maurice Evans (as Tony), Williams and Dawson all repeated their roles from the original Broadway play. When Mark arrives from America to visit the couple, Margot tells him that she had destroyed all his letters but one that was stolen. The main character in an episode from the series's first season, "Portrait of Jocelyn", is named Mark Halliday. Originally intended to be shown in dual-strip polarized 3-D, the film played in most theatres in ordinary 2-D due to the loss of interest in the 3-D process (the projection of which was difficult and error-prone) by the time of its release. Movie & TV guides. In the episode, Halliday's wife, Jocelyn, has disappeared several years earlier, and at the conclusion, it is revealed that he murdered her. Subsequently she was blackmailed, but she had never retrieved the stolen letter. Top 200 of all time 150 Essential Comedies. Dynamic! A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. The following day, Tony persuades Margot to hide the fact that he told her not to call the police immediately. Hitchcock said of 3-D: "It's a nine-day wonder, and I came in on the ninth day."[10]. "[14], Richard L. 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