nan | 楠木

Dial M for Murder is Alfred Hitchcock’s crisp and enjoyable mystery thriller. It’s not as bold and grand as some of Hitchcock’s other works, and almost all the story happens in the confinement of one small apartment, but that’s exactly the beauty of the film.

The plot follows retired tennis star Tony Wendice (Ray Milland), who has discovered his wife’ Margo’s (Grace Kelly) affair with American writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings). Tony decides to employ an elaborate plot to kill his wife, blackmailing another person to do the act. However, as the writer points out, the perfect plan never works in reality because of the unpredictable things that inevitably happens – and the attempted murderer is killed instead by Margo.

Tony improvises his plan as the police launch an investigation, and Margo is convicted of murder – but then the inspector starts developing other ideas, and of course we know what would happen in the end.

The events are confined to Tony’s apartment, and this restriction gives the film an almost theater-like style. Dialogues drive the film, and it’s very witty and fast exchanges. The film has that classic English style – indeed, Tony’s a true English gentleman in appearance, and it’s very enjoyable to watch him trying to stay cool and maintain his class – even when things start going under.

From the beginning we’re clear of Tony’s intentions, so the mystery in this film is not who did it, but how it will turn out. And in true film noir fashion, everything that can go wrong does go wrong – or so it seems, and there are plenty of twists where you least expected them.

8/10