The planning and execution of a murder without getting caught is the subject matter of the Alfred Hitchcock movie Dial M for Murder (1954). The movie holds superficial similarity to the Matt Lynn Digital reviewed Strangers on a Train (1951), though diverges significantly in location, the feeling of claustrophobia in a largely singular set, and the faithfulness to the feeling and two-dimensional cinematography of the stage play turned screenplay by playwright Frederick Knott.
Grace Kelly stars as Margot Wendice in her movie debut. Wendice is involved in a love triangle with her husband, former tennis player Tony Wendice, and love interest and crime novelist Mark Halliday. The husband and love interest were portrayed by Ray Milland and Robert Cummings, respectively. The motive for murder begins in this triangle while including, ostensibly, a financial motivation as well given Margot’s wealth coming into the Wendice marriage coupled with a matrimonial pressure to discontinue a professional tennis career.
The notion of presenting the underlying planning for the planned crime in Dial M for Murder laid in bringing the notion of Margot’s stolen purse, some love letters between Margot and Halliday, and in getting former college classmate to Tony, Charles Swann, to handle some extortion letters Tony had sent to Margot. A pretext of acquiring a car through cash purchase lured Charles to the home of Tony and Margot, with the planned crime presented to Charles and the audience in one efficient telling.
It was in the movement from planning to executing the physical murder, with Tony initiating the intended murder by placing a phone call to the Wendice home, that the planned circumstances for Tony, Charles and others occurs decidedly against the planned sequence. Anthony Dawson portrayed Charles Swann, who dies during the planned murder. The second main movement of the film brings in actor John Williams as Chief Inspector Hubbard.
It is Chief Inspector Hubbard, in a role that draws upon the Agatha Christie character Hercule Poirot, who investigates the circumstances of the Charles Swann death. We are granted the cameo of film director Alfred Hitchcock through a photograph on the wall of the Wendice homestead, wherein the story of guilt detection for the murder planner becomes the overriding mystery of the movie.
The playing of verbal and intellectual ping pong characterized the remainder of the film, with some expertly played attempts at misdirection leveled in multiple directions. Margot Wendice was tried for the murder of Charles Swann, with startlingly different responses from the gentlemen in the love triangle. It is my genuine pleasure to suggest that you watch the movie to see how the story turns out. I give Dial M for Murder as presented by Alfred Hitchcock 4.0-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Saturday, August 7, 2021
Matt Lynn Digital 
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