Year: 1954
Category: Crime.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Cast: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams, Anthony Dawson, Leo Britt, Patrick Allen, George Leigh.
Margot Mary Wendice is a rich woman who is married to Tony Wendice, an English professional tennis player, while she has an affair with Mark Halliday, an American crime-fiction writer, from whom she received letters from America, now one of those letters is in the possession of her husband, who has sent her anonymous notes asking for money in return, but for Margot the problems do not end there, because of this Tony is now worried about his current personal situation, since he abandoned his career as tennis player and the infidelity of his wife is a sign that affirms what he suspected, she does not love him and can replace him at any time, leaving him in a complicated economic situation, so Tony decides to start the perfect crime he planned for a year, the murder of his wife, a task for which he needs the help of a former university colleague, Charles Alexander "CA" Swann, whom he extorts to help him.
Alfred Hitchcock is not known as the master of suspense in vain, his work in this film is incredible, he manages to generate a lot with few resources, almost all the scenes of the film take place in a single location, and almost the entire film advances to through the dialogue, but still manages to create a climate of suspense successfully, showing a story that becomes better with each scene, and in which after a few minutes it is impossible to lose interest. 105 minutes of entertainment that the spectator's eyes witness to finally close the story in a satisfactory way.
The plans, the shots, the sequence, the rhythm, the dialogues, the set and the choice of the actors, all perfectly chosen with the talent that only the greatest directors have.
Not too long ago I had the opportunity to see two of the many films that exist and that are directly inspired by this one; one of them is a remake, A Perfect Murder, directed by Andrew Davis and starring Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow and Viggo Mortensen; the other is Fracture, directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling, in terms of the story both are similar to the Hitchcock film, one more than another of course, the remake has many more similarities, however, each one with its individual elements that make them independent films and not an exact copy, but for me it is clear that despite the years that have passed since its premiere, Dial M for Murder is the best of its kind. No doubt it is still one of those classics that should be seen. A simple contraption created with the only purpose of entertaining the audience for 100 minutes.
The performances are great, especially Ray Milland, who does a really great job; the always beautiful Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams and Anthony Dawson do enough each in their place for the film and the story to work correctly.
Unfortunately, as happened with Psycho, my experience watching the film was affected, because I also knew what would happen since I saw the remake of Andrew Davis first, and although the two films are not identical, in important things like the resolution of the conflict are similar. However, it is a pleasant film to watch and I did not get bored at any time, in fact, I would gladly see it again right now. If you have not seen it yet, or already saw it and want more, you can rent or buy the DVD or Blu-Ray and read Frederick Knott's book.
