Alfred Hitchcock had already begun work on REAR WINDOW when he took on the project to direct DIAL M FOR MURDER, based on the successful play by Frederick Knott. For the film, Hitchcock chose to cast his favorite leading lady of the time, Grace Kelly, as the embattled Margot Wendice. Kelly would also star in REAR WINDOW and Hitchcock's subsequent TO CATCH A THIEF. It wasn't Hitchcock's preference to shoot DIAL M FOR MURDER in Warnercolor 3D (the cameras were large and unwieldly), and the film is seldom screened in 3D, but Hitchcock's use of the technique is notable for its service to the story rather than just being a gimmick. In the film Margot Wendice is a wealthy heiress whose playboy husband, Tony (Ray Milland), recognizes his dependence on his wife's fortune. When Tony begins to suspect he is losing Margot's affection to writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings), he also begins to fear he will lose her wealth. This leads the callous husband to craft a plan for his wife's death. However, when the plan goes awry, Tony is quick to turn circumstance into a second opportunity to destroy his wife.
DIAL M FOR MURDER is Alfred Hitchcock's intriguing cinematic adaptation of Frederick Knott's play about a woman who slowly comes to realize that her husband is trying to murder her. In order to get his hands on his wife Margot's fortune, Tony Wendice hires a hit man to "break into" their apartment and kill her. But when things don't go according to plan, the scheming husband turns circumstances into a second chance to be rid of his wife.
Hitchcock cameo: Hitch can be seen in a class reunion photograph, standing on the left, about 10 minutes into the film.
DIAL M FOR MURDER was shot in 3-D but not originally released in that format; the 3-D version has subsequently been screened in various art movie houses.
The film was remade as a 1981 TV movie starring Angie Dickinson and later as a feature film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Michael Douglas and entitled A PERFECT MURDER.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Snap Case
Full Frame - 1.37
Audio:
Mono 1.0 - English
Mono 1.0 - French
Additional Release Material:
Documentary:
1. DIAL H FOR HITCHCOCK
2. 3D A BRIEF HISTORY
Writer
Frederick Knott: Author/Playwright
Director of Photography
Robert Burks:
Review 1:
"Well-acted, un-stagy and with a huge third-act boost from John Williams..."
Source: USA Today
p.6D 09/10/2004
Review 2:
"...Besides historic charm, the movie also sports droll humor....It's a cinema-history treat..."
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
p.30 05/19/2000
Review 3:
"[T]aut, terrifying..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.E11 08/29/2004
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