Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786304039533 Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC ISBN: 6304039530 Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Release Date: June 18, 1996 Running Time: 105 minutes Sales Rank: 6881 Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: May 29, 1954
Amazon.com: A suave tennis player (Ray Milland) plots the perfect murder, the dispatching of his wealthy wife (Grace Kelly), who is having an affair with a writer (Robert Cummings). Amazingly, the wife manages to stave off her attacker, a twist of fate that challenges the hubby's talent for improvisation. Alfred Hitchcock wisely stuck to the stage origins of Dial M for Murder, ignoring the temptation to 'open up' the material from the home of the unhappy couple. The result may not be one of Hitchcock's deepest films, but it's a thoroughly engaging chamber movie. It also features Grace Kelly at her loveliest, the same year she made Rear Window with Hitchcock. Dial M for Murder was filmed in the briefly trendy 3-D process, and Hitchcock shot some scenes to bring out the depth of the 3-D field; it's especially good for the nail-biting attempted murder of Kelly, and her desperate reach for a pair of scissors that seems to be just outside her grasp. However, the film was rarely shown with the proper 3-D projection, going out 'flat' instead (a 1980 reissue restored the process for a limited theatrical release). Dial M was remade in 1998 as A Perfect Murder, a film that changed and expanded the material, with no improvement on the clean, witty original. --Robert Horton
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Rating: - Hitchcock made SO MANY great movies
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 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 ... Read More
Rating: - The Perfect "Murder"
Hitchcock's immaculate rendering of the stage thriller is one of that rare breed: the underrated classic. Without significantly altering the action by "opening it up", Hitchcock still creates something thrillingly cinematic. This has to be one of the finest stage adaptations ever. It may be one of the best mysteries ever made as well. Indeed, it's amazing how the play's text is riveting even when it's art-less carrying on about latch-keys and the specifics of the planned murder. (This contradicts Chandler's otherwise strong thesis in his essay The Simple Art of Murder. These details aren't supposed to hold our interest once we know the story's outcome, but they do.)
Much of how this is achieved is through the stellar cast particularly Ray Milland who turns in one of the great Hitchcock performances. As we watch him cover-up his crimes and avoid detection, he's like a dapper Norman Bates. ... Read More
Rating: - What planet am I on?
I so totally disagree with all the glowing reviews. There was no suspense for me whatsoever! First off, the characters were types and were never fully developed, never even slightly developed actually. Ray Milland who is a great actor put on a smirkly fake I love you face at the start and left it at that. There was no way to hate him or love him, all you could do was try not to fall asleep. Grace Kelly was ok, but mostly just good looking. That guy who played her boyfriend reminded me of someone from a beach movie.
The plot was all wooden figures doing things.and then all of a sudden THE KEY, the key here the key there everywhere a key key, look the key oh no a key. I kid you not, that was the whole movie! This could have been a great movie if the characters had been fleshed out. If you could love/hate the villain, but still root for the poor victim! Bad bad movie!
Rating: - Dial M for Murder Review
One of Alfred Hitchcock's classic films. Ray Milland is exceptionally good. Dimitry Tiomkin was one of the finest Hollywood film composers; however, in my humble opinion, there are some scenes in the movie, which could've used more suspenseful music.
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