Dial M For Murder - Review

There are some Hitchcock films that are often ignored by a lot of people in favour of focusing attention on his bigger budget, box office record smashing films, Dial M for Murder is one of these forgotten gems. Set mainly in one single room, the film sees Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) enlist the help of an old college friend, Captain Lesgate (Anthony Dawson), to murder his wife, Margot (Grace Kelly). When the murder doesn't go quite to plan, and Margot ends up killing Lesgate, Wendice must think fast in order to cover his tracks, and what we get is a cat and mouse chase in a typically suspenseful Hitchcock style feature.

The biggest topic for discussion regarding this film is the extremely thick plot, which was adapted from the play by Frederick Knott. The many twists and turns of the plot are presented to us throughout the whole 1 hour and 45 minutes of screen time that the film runs for, showing Hitchcock's understanding of pacing and how not to overwhelm and audience with information. The plot twists are very often unseen, and the characters, specifically the Inspector, (John Williams) have more knowledge on the events of the night of the murder than the viewer, even though we were the ones that witnessed the deed happening. The murder is meticulously planned out in the film by Wendice, in order to inform Lesgate, and the audience, of the way in which the events should pan out, meaning that when, on the night of the attack, things don't really go to plan, we are already full of suspense over what position Wendice will find himself in and how he will deal with it.

With the remorselessness of Wendice sending shivers down viewer's spines, Ray Milland's performance was brilliant as the sadistic brain behind the murder. Grace Kelly, although being a minor character in terms of how often we see her, shows her perfect fit to the role of the Hitchcock blonde in this film. Her innocence is captured through her lack of awareness of her husband's manipulative side, the audience is immediately sympathetic towards her, even though she is in fact flawed, cheating on her husband with Halliday, however we discover that in Hitchcock's world, there is rarely an unflawed character and therefore should not show contempt for people's flaws, it is only when people's evil is shown that we should express out contempt. The casting for this feature was great, with the actors giving just enough performance so the realism and excitement of the investigation is relatable and not viewed as too much.

Dial M for Murder is definitely not one of Hitchcock's films to skip. Whatever simplicity Hitchcock chose to go with in regards to the technical side of the film and the cinematography is overrun by the winding plot and diverse range of characters, where we are genuinely at a loss as to where the film will go next. A masterpiece of '50s cinema, this film is an example of Hitchcock at his best and most comfortable.