Dial M For Murder (1954)

Dial M For Murder - 1954

Coming up next, we have 1954's "Dial M For Murder", another Hitchcock film, in which we find a man scheming to murder his unfaithful wife.  When she survives the attack, he must turn the tables and shift the blame and suspicion towards her.

The film's cast includes Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams, and Anthony Dawson.

American Margot Wendice is in love, but not with her husband.  She's been having an affair with crime writer Mark Halliday.  On a visit to London, Mark pays a visit to Margot and her husband.

Margot tells Mark that one of the love letters that he had written to her was stolen, and she fears that someone knows of their indiscretions.

When Margot's husband Tony comes home from work, he tells Margot that he's got some late work to do and won't be able to join them for dinner.  He tells Margot to take Mark out for a night on the town without him.  Reluctantly, they decide to go.

Once they are gone, Tony calls up an old college friend named Swann.  Once Swann gets to the Wendice apartment, Tony reveals how he knows everything about Margot and Mark's romance and now he wants to murder Margot.

Tony blackmails Swann into doing the dirty work for him.  They discuss the specifics of the crime and part ways.

They agreed upon day arrives and Swann finds his way into the Wendice apartment once Tony is gone for the night.  When Margot answers the phone (Tony is on the other end of the line), Swann makes his move.

Unfortunately for Swann, Margot fights back.  She reaches around for something to fight off her attacker with and comes up with a pair of scissors.  She plunges the scissors into Swann's back, causing his death.

By the time the police arrive later to inspect and follow up on the attack, Tony has arranged evidence and tweaked facts so that Margot is implicated in a murder/cover-up, in which she allegedly murdered Swann to stop him from revealing the truth of her relationship with Mark.

When Mark arrives on the scene, it seems to corroborate everything that Tony has set in motion.  Margot is arrested for murder and taken to jail.  She's later sentenced to death.

Several months later, Mark comes to Tony with his suspicions of how Margot couldn't have perpetrated the crime.  Tony dismisses Mark's theory, but when the police get involved, Tony seems to get tripped up when answering some pretty simple questions.

When Tony is out, Margot is brought from prison and told that it is their suspicion that Tony engineered the attack on her.  She can't quite believe it's true.  However, they need her in order to make Tony confess.

When Tony comes home and sees Margot, he realizes that he's been caught.

He frantically looks around for an escape route, but realizes he is trapped.  Tony is arrested for the crime and must now take Margot's place on death row.

Cast rundown:

   Ray Milland.............................Tony Wendice

   Grace Kelly..............................Margot Wendice

   Robert Cummings....................Mark Halliday

   John Williams..........................Chief Inspector Hubbard

   Anthony Dawson.....................Swann

And that's it for Dial M For Murder.  During the scene where Margot answers the telephone at night, Hitchcock had an expensive robe for Grace Kelly to wear.  She refused, saying that no woman would answer the phone in the middle of the night wearing such a robe.  She told him she would answer the phone in her nightgown.  Hitchcock agreed and let her have her way.  When he saw the finished product, he decided to let Grace make all the decisions about her costumes in their future films together.

Of course, Hitchcock appears in the film in a cameo.  In this particular film, he appears in a photo with Swann and Tony when they are discussing how they know each other.

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