Dial M for Murder

One of my all-time favorite lines in a movie comes late in The Bridge on the River Kwai in a conversation between Jack Hawkins' Warden and William Holden's Shears character. As they prepare to blow up the bridge, Warden says 'you're taught there's always something else you can do' because much of the time it's the unexpected thing that is the most costly. As meticulous a planner as you try to be, you can't plan for everything. That idea comes into play in Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 thriller Dial M for Murder.

Former pro tennis player Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) seems to have a perfect life, a beautiful wife, Margot (Grace Kelly), a lavish London apartment, and no job to speak of because his wife comes from money. But everything's not so rosy for Tony who has discovered his wife is having an affair with Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings), an American mystery/crime novelist. So cautiously and carefully, Tony sets up an elaborate plan to murder his wife and gain all her riches through her will. The main component of his plan is the most clever, blackmailing an old classmate (Anthony Dawson) to actually kill Margot.

Tony's plan seems perfect, every thing is planned down to the smallest detail as to how he plans to murder his wife. There will be no witnesses, the murderer will be paid off, and he'll have a perfect alibi. But the plan doesn't go smoothly (SPOILER here's the attempted murder plan), and Tony is forced to scramble to make everything right. Could his new plan still work? A detective (John Williams) can't quite put his finger on what's going on, but he knows something is fishy.

Director Alfred Hitchcock was always one of the best moviemakers around at toying with the audiences' perception of what was going on, the preconceived notion they bring into the theater before the movie even starts. Dial M is ripe with those sorts of things. For me, the biggest is that I was rooting for Milland's Tony to get away with it. He's so smooth, so suave in explaining his plan, you understand where he's coming from. As he explains it, you agree with him. To counter that, Hitchcock cast Grace Kelly as the cheating wife. Kelly looks about as angelic as any actress around so it's hard to believe she'd cheat on her husband, but she does just that. And lastly, Cummings' Halliday character is incredibly annoying so you hope things don't turn out well for him. It's all little touches Hitchcock adds that make the movies fun to watch.

Based on a Broadway play, Dial M is set almost exclusively in Tony and Margot's spacious London apartment. With a few exceptions of outdoor or other building scenes, the whole movie takes place in two rooms, the living room and the bedroom with an occasional glance out the window. But Hitchcock is so good filming these sequences, you hardly notice that the story never leaves the room. He shoots straight-on, from above, from below, POV shots, anything to keep it interesting.

With a play as its background, the story will obviously be dialogue-heavy. The scene where Tony explains his diabolical plan to Anthony Dawson made me think of a slow burn, a quietly building scene as more is revealed and Tony explains what he hopes to do and how they'll do it. It's so clear that when his perfect murder plan goes awry, the viewer knows precisely what's going on just as the characters onscreen do.

The casting of the major parts, as discussed before, works perfectly because so much is played against your perceptions. Some interesting posts at IMDB point out how differently the movie would play if Hitchcock had cast Jimmy Stewart as the conspiring husband. It'd certainly add a unique touch, but Milland is excellent as Tony. Nothing can rattle this guy no matter what's thrown at him. In her first of three movies with the director, Kelly is playing 2 different characters almost, the loving, doting wife and the cheating, passionate lover, and she nails both parts. Like I said, Cummings is annoying so I guess he did a good job, and Williams as Inspector Hubbard hits all the right notes.

Typically listed as one of Hitchcock's best movies, at least in his top 10, Dial M for Murder is a unique murder mystery/thriller. There's little to no action, but the story is so clearly laid out and explained with the actors doing such a fine job working that story out, you barely notice the time go by. Next thing you know, movie over!

Dial M for Murder <-----trailer (1954): ***/****