Dial M for Murder
Dial M for Murder | |
---|---|
Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
Screenplay by | Frederick Knott |
Based on | Dial M for Murder 1952 play by Frederick Knott |
Produced by | Alfred Hitchcock |
Starring | Ray Milland Grace Kelly Robert Cummings John Williams |
Cinematography | Robert Burks |
Edited by | Rudi Fehr |
Music by | Dimitri Tiomkin |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 105 minutes[2] |
Country | United States[2] |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.4 million |
Box office | $6 million[3] |
Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock,[4] starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams. Both the screenplay and the successful stage play on which it was based were written by English playwright Frederick Knott. The play premiered in 1952 on BBC Television,[5] before being performed on stage in the same year in London's West End in June, and then New York's Broadway in October.
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.[6] The film earned an estimated $2.7 million in North American box office sales in 1954.[7]
Plot
In the mid-1950s, Tony Wendice, a retired English professional tennis player, is married to wealthy socialite Margot, who has been having an affair with their friend Mark Halliday, an American crime-fiction writer. Unbeknownst to them, Tony knows about the affair and plots Margot's murder to inherit her fortune, fearing a divorce would leave him penniless.
Tony is also aware that Charles Swann, an old acquaintance from
The following night, Swann enters the flat and Tony calls as planned. When Margot comes to the phone, Swann tries to strangle her with his scarf, but she fatally stabs him with scissors. Upon hearing Margot plead for help instead of Swann's whistle, Tony advises her not to speak to anyone. He returns home, calls the police, sends Margot to bed, and transfers what he thinks is Margot's key from Swann's pocket into her handbag. He also attempts to frame Margot by planting Mark's letter on Swann and destroying Swann's scarf.
The next day Tony persuades Margot to hide the fact that he told her not to call the police. Chief Inspector Hubbard arrives to question the Wendices, though Margot makes several conflicting statements. When Hubbard says the evidence indicates that Swann entered through the front door, Tony claims that Swann must have been responsible for stealing Margot's handbag, and made a copy of her key. As Tony intends, Hubbard does not believe the story and arrests Margot after concluding that she killed Swann for blackmailing her. Margot is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
Months later, on the day before Margot's scheduled execution, Mark visits Tony, saying he has devised a story for him to tell the police to save Margot. Mark's "story" is very close to what actually happened: that Tony paid Swann to kill Margot. If Tony confesses to Mark’s story, Tony would go to jail for a while, but Margot would be saved. Hubbard arrives unexpectedly, and Mark hides in the bedroom. Hubbard asks Tony about large sums of cash he has been spending around town, tricks Tony into revealing that his latchkey is in his raincoat, and inquires about Tony's
Plainclothes police officers bring Margot from prison to the flat. She tries unsuccessfully to unlock the door with the key in her handbag, then enters through the garden, proving to Hubbard that she is unaware of the hidden key and is therefore innocent. Hubbard has Margot's handbag returned to the police station, where Tony retrieves it after discovering that he has no key. The key from Margot's bag does not work, so he uses the hidden key to open the door, demonstrating his guilt and exonerating Margot. With his escape routes blocked by Hubbard and another policeman, Tony calmly makes himself a drink and congratulates Hubbard.
Cast
- Ray Milland as Tony Wendice
- Grace Kelly as Margot Mary Wendice
- Robert Cummings as Mark Halliday
- John Williams as Chief Inspector Hubbard
- Anthony Dawson as Charles Alexander Swann/Captain Lesgate
- Leo Britt as storyteller at the party
- Patrick Allen as Detective Pearson
- Robin Hughes as Police Sergeant
- Martin Milner as policeman outside Wendice flat (uncredited)
- George Leigh as Detective Williams
- George Alderson as First Detective
Production
After I Confess (1953), Hitchcock planned to film The Bramble Bush, based on the 1948 novel by David Duncan, as a Transatlantic Pictures production, with partner Sidney Bernstein. However, there were problems with the script and budget, and Hitchcock and Bernstein decided to dissolve their partnership. Warner Bros. allowed Hitchcock to scrap the film, and begin production on Dial M for Murder.[8]
Mark's name was changed for the film; in the original play, he was Max Halliday.[9] Actors Dawson and Williams reprise their Broadway roles as Swann/Captain Lesgate and Inspector Hubbard, respectively.
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. 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.
Release
Dial M for Murder was shot using Warner Bros.' own proprietary 3-D camera rig, the so-called All-Media Camera. After one preview performance on May 18 and four showings on the May 19, a Philadelphia theater manager frantically contacted the studio and said that people were staying away in droves. He asked for permission to drop the 3-D and show the film flat.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on May 23 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. In exhibitors' own terms, "DIAL M" literally died. And after just four performances on Wednesday, some long-distance telephoning to report complaints, the increasing skimpiness of customers—a good many of them making no bones of their dissatisfaction—permission was given to throw away the glasses and hastily switch to the 2-D version. Whereupon business at the Randolph took a turn for the better."[10]
Dial M for Murder marked the end of the brief flirtation with 3-D films of the early 1950s. Hitchcock said of 3-D: "It's a nine-day wonder, and I came in on the ninth day."[11]
The dual-strip system was used for the February 1980 revival of the film in 3D at the York Theater in San Francisco, California. This revival performed so well that Warner Bros. did a limited national re-release of the film in February 1982 using Chris Condon's single-strip StereoVision 3-D system. The re-release included a sold-out engagement at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The film was shown in 3D in some UK cinemas during the summer of 2013 and in Italy at the beginning of fall of the same year.[12]
Warner Bros. released Dial M for Murder as a 3D Blu-ray on October 9, 2012.
Reception
"This is a technical triumph that Hitchcock has achieved", wrote Bosley Crowther of The New York Times in a favourable review. "It is one for which he needed good actors. 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."[13] Variety wrote: "There are a number of basic weaknesses in the set-up that keep the picture from being a good suspense show for any but the most gullible. Via the performances and several suspense tricks expected of Hitchcock, the weaknesses are glossed over to some extent but not enough to rate the film a cinch winner."[14] Harrison's Reports wrote that the film "shapes up as no more than a mild entertainment, despite the expert direction of Hitchcock and the competent acting of the players. The chief weakness is that the action is slow, caused by the fact that the story unfolds almost entirely by dialogue."[15]
Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post called the film "completely choice", with Williams and Dawson "smooth as silk in reprising their stage roles", adding, "Hitch has a field day with his camera angles, darting our eyes now here, now there, doing tingling tricks with shadows and long longshots in quick contrast to fuzzed close-ups. It's the work of a master enjoying his script."[16] John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote a generally positive review, writing that he wished the script would give Hitchcock "a chance to cut loose with one of those spectacular chases he used to specialise in", but finding that after a talky opening 30 minutes, "things speed up once the murder wheels are set in motion, and eventually the piece becomes grimly diverting".[17] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the film "offers the prolific Hitchcock little more than an opportunity to carpenter a neat piece of filmed theatre—an opportunity which perhaps satisfied the master a little more than it does us ... 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."[18]
On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 90% based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Dial M for Murder may be slightly off-peak Hitchcock, but by any other standard, it's a sophisticated, chillingly sinister thriller -- and one that boasts an unforgettable performance from Grace Kelly to boot".[19] In 2012, The Guardian called the film "a taut, acidly funny thriller".[20]
The film was listed by American Film Institute in 2001 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills (#48),[21] and in 2008 in AFI's 10 Top 10 (#9 in Mysteries).[22]
Remakes, adaptations, and parodies
This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2021) |
As it is considered one of the classic examples of a stage
The television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents premiered in the United States the year after Dial M for Murder was released. The main character in an episode from the series's first season, "Portrait of Jocelyn", is named Mark Halliday. In the episode, Halliday's wife, Jocelyn, has disappeared several years earlier, and at the conclusion, it is revealed that he murdered her.[citation needed]
The original play was also adapted in the Soviet Union in 1981 under the title Tony Wendice's Mistake (Ошибка Тони Вендиса).[24]
The film partially inspired a
The episode "The Fifth Stair" of the TV series 77 Sunset Strip recreated Dial M for Murder, with Richard Long portraying Tony Wendice.
The third episode of the sixth season of
In February 2008, Charlize Theron recreated one of the stills from the movie as Margot Mary Wendice for Variety Fair's The 2008 Hollywood Portfolio: Hitchcock Classics spread.[26]
The
The New Vic Theatre staged a production of the play in its main house (in the round) in 2017. It was directed by Peter Leslie Wild, and the cast featured William Ellis as Tony. The play received positive press reviews.[27]
In 2022, another stage adaptation of Dial M for Murder written by
See also
References
- ^ "Dial M for Murder - Details". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
- ^ a b "Dial M for Murder". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on September 4, 2017. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
- ^ "Box Office Information for Dial M for Murder". The Numbers. April 14, 2012.
- BFI. Archived from the originalon November 3, 2016. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
- ^ "Dial M for Murder". IMDb.
- ^ Bob Furmanek and Greg Kintz. "An In-Depth Look at DIAL M FOR MURDER". 3-D Film Archive. Archived from the original on May 25, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
- ^ "1954 Boxoffice Champs". Variety. January 5, 1955. p. 59. Retrieved April 22, 2019 – via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 978-0060988272.
- ^ The Broadway League. "Dial "M" for Murder | IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
- ^ Martin, Mildred (May 23, 1954). "Play's the Thing as Philadelphia Fans Spurn 3-D for 2-D Version of DIAL M" (Subscription required). The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
- ^ Dial M for Murder in 3-D! Archived July 9, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ (in Italian) ilcinemaritrovato.it
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (May 29, 1954). "'Dial M for Murder' is Shown at Paramount". The New York Times. p. 13.
- ^ "Dial M for Murder (3D–Color)". Variety. April 28, 1954. p. 6 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "'Dial M for Murder' with Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings". Harrison's Reports: 71. May 1, 1954.
- ^ Coe, Richard L. (May 28, 1954). "Dial M For Fine Tingles in Spine". The Washington Post: 51.
- ^ McCarten, John (June 5, 1954). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. pp. 62–63.
- ^ "Dial M for Murder". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 21 (248): 128. September 1954.
- ^ Rotten Tomatoes. "Dial "M" for Murder". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
- ^ Barnes, Henry (August 6, 2012). "My Favourite Hitchcock: Dial M for Murder". The Guardian.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
- ^ "AFI's 10 Top 10: Top 10 Mystery". American Film Institute. 2016. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
- ^ TV Guide, June 15–21, 1968, p. A-63
- ^ Oshibka Toni Vendisa
- ^ Sreedhar Pillai (January 15, 1988). "In the spotlight". India Today. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
- ^ Vanity Fair photograph
- ^ Orme, Steve (April 28, 2017). "Dial M For Murder". British Theatre Guide. Retrieved April 28, 2017.