"May the saints protect us from the gifted amateur."
Dial M for Murder (1954) was my first Alfred Hitchcock film. Not sure how much I appreciated it at age 12, but parts of it stuck with me even after seeing his more acclaimed works. It's a good introduction to the Master of Suspense, with its twisted murder plot, nifty direction and Grace Kelly.Tony Wendice (Ray Milland), a retired tennis player, learns his wife Margot (Grace Kelly) is carrying on with writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings). Tony contemplates murder through ingenuity: he blackmails college chum C.A. Swan (Anthony Dawson) into killing Margot. Swan botches the hit, killed by Margot in self-defense. Tony spins the evidence to convict Margot for murder. Mark and Police Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) smell a rat, teaming up to trap Tony.
Based on Frederick Knott's play, Dial M for Murder transcens its format through effective direction. The film's shot entirely on soundstages without inhibiting its creativity. Key scenes are staged in elaborate, sometimes abstract fashion: overhead shots during the murder preparations, a phone's internal mechanisms triggering the murder, Margot testifying before a candy-colored scrim. Originally shot in 3D, Dial M's just as effective flat.
In a typically Hitchcockian touch, Dial M twists its audience's sympathy during the murder scene. We identify not with Margot, the innocent victim, but Swan, trapped into killing by his shady past, skulking among shadows to avoid detection. Shooting in lurid, shadowy colors, staged with precise, ominous pacing (there's no music and little sound for most of the scene), Hitchcock builds the tension unbearably until the violence occurs. It concludes with a gruesome death by scissors, borrowed from Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear but rendered unforgettable by Hitchcock.
Knott's story is both clever and predictable. Tony's ability to manipulate characters and events makes him a wonderful heel, destroying lives for personal satisfaction more than revenge. Novelist Mark fancies himself a crime expert, yet his scheme to save Margot earns Tony's derision as implausible! Inspector Hubbard pieces together minor bits of evidence (the missing scarf, a spare latchkey) to trap Tony. It's a neat piece of work, well-made yet a little too neat. Which isn't to deny that the conclusion's eminently satisfying.
Ray Milland is a classic villain, charmingly devious, dangerously suave. It's probably his best work. Grace Kelly, making her Hitchcock debut, is luminously ornamental; she's much better-used in Rear Window and To Catch a Thief. John Williams is perfectly cast as the wry Inspector Hubbard; Anthony Dawson makes a bewildered, sympathetic heel. Only Robert Cummings, previously of Saboteur, flops as Kelly's romantic partner.
The worst one can say about Dial M for Murder is that it's an exercise in craftsmanship, no insult when done this well. Compared to Hitchcock's other stage-to-screen adaptations (Juno and the Paycock, Rope) it's a masterpiece. Even without that qualification, it's still a satisfying yarn.
