A Hitchcock a Day - Dial M for Murder

I have to admit that the films Hitchcock directed in the 50s are my favourite. There's something about the colour, the music, the actors and the general feeling these films give that immediately captures my interest and entertains me thoroughly. Dial M for Murder was released in 1954 and it stars Ray Millard, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings and John Williams. Basically if you're an 80s-90s kid like myself and you've seen A Perfect Murder (1998) starring Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow and Viggo Mortensen you know the plot of the film as the latter is a remake of the first. However, there are some differences between the two that make both of them enjoyable, meaning that even if you have seen one of these films you can still enjoy the other.

The movie takes place in London where a successful tennis player, Tony Wendice, has noticed that his beautiful wife, Margot had a brief affair with an American writer, Mark Halliday while he was on a tennis tournament.

Now, after having quitted his career as a tennis player, he and his wife have given a second chance to their marriage.

But the truth is that Mrs. Wendice had kept correspondance with her former lover and she has destroyed all letters but one.

Mr. Wendice found that only letter and stole it while he anonymously blackmailed his wife in order to make her stop the relationship.

With the visit of Mark Halliday in London, however, everything changes. Mr. Wendice has a plan that will change his life and end the life of his wife.

For that, he invites a former fellow student of his, Charles Swann, to his house in order to hire him to murder his wife.

According to Wendice, the plan is flawless and nobody will be able to find out the truth: that he hired a man to kill his wife so that he can inherit her fortune and simultaneously avenge her for her infidelity.

But in real life, no crime is perfect and naturally things don't go as planned because Margot fights back and kills Swann in self-defence.

The film is an adaptation of a Broadway play that had run for 552 performances.

According to the script, during the attack scene Margot was supposed to get out of bed, put on her robe and then answer the phone. Grace Kelly said that no woman would put on a robe to answer the phone while she is alone in her own house. Hitchcock agreed and the scene was shot with Margot in her nightgown.

Grace Kelly wears bright colours in the beginning of the film which progressively darken as the time goes by.

Hitchcock wasn't satisfied with the scene of the attempted murder. He said: "This is nicely done but there wasn't enough gleam to the scissors and a murder without gleaming scissors is like asparagus without the holondaise sauce - tasteless".