I read that Dial M for Murder this year would be part of our anual Independent Film Festival (called IndieLisboa) and since it was one of the Alfred Hitchcock films that I had not seen yet what a perfect opportunity to check it, more so in the big screen and with a special edition in 3D.

I must confess that I am not a fan of 3D and I was a little apprehensive, you all must have already read it around here many other times in my reviews that I don't like 3D very much but I thought that this would be a totally different experience. I knew that the techniques used were appropriated for 3D and afterall The Master never done it wrong!

In 1953 Alfred Hitchcock filmed it with 3D cameras but it ended up just being released in theaters normal 2D. 3D was not properly an interesting thing at that time. All of the camera techniques used are absolutely amazing! It was one of the best experiences that I had in theater and definitely one of the best in 3D too. You literally feel that you are inside the film right there beside the actors. You feel so close to them that the tension that is built works even more perfectly. The depth is used in an amazing way! I've only seen this kind of depth used once in 3D, that time was in Martin Scorsese's film Hugo.

The plot of Dial M for Murder is terrific! It tells us the story of an ex-tennis player that made up a plan to murder his wife that is having an affair with one of his friends. If she dies he also will receive a lots of money with insurance. The plan is perfect, but things did not go as expected so he made up with a plan B. The story is so intense and that tension is brilliantly built little by little. The dialogues are great and the performances were also very important to make everything work so well. Ray Milland and Grace Kelly had fantastic performances playing husband and wife so as Robert Cummings as the lover and Jonh Williams as the funny Chief Inspector Hubbard.

I had a totally different idea from what this film would be because of the 1998 remake A Perfect Murder, with Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow but it was nothing like this!

Without any doubt Dial M for Murder is one of Alfred Hitchcock best films and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to had seen it at the big screen and also having the amazing 3D experience.

It is very obvious that this was written as a play. It is very heavy on exposition to cover almost all activities that take place outside of the "essentially" one room of the apartment. Nothing wrong with that, but it gives the film a different feel. This is more of an intellectual exercise than a action-packed murder mystery. It might have been better to have written Tony as a chess master than a former tennis star. It would have been a bit more in keeping with his plots and strategies. Even the action in the actual murder scene is "play-like" - a rather exaggerated initial reaction to being stabbed followed by the more drawn out dying, dying, dead finale.

Each time I watch this movie, I'm always struck by the strange idea that apparently every citizen is required to account for every pound note that they acquire and spend? I have no idea if this was remotely true in England in 1954, but it seems odd and unlikely. It's not critical, but it is jarring when they talk about it, because it seems so unnatural.

This is a great movie and a great story. However, the over-head camera angles for some scenes seems a strange choice, and Grace Kelly is clearly under-utilized in this role. Margot is such a compliant character that it seems very unlikely that she would engage in an extra-marital affair and then be so nonchalant about being with her former lover together with her husband.

While my criticisms might give the impression that I disliked the movie, these are only minor flaws in a superior film. Hitchcock is able to convey so much through an actor's mere glance - it is incredible!

This 3D, it's murder it is.

Middle tier Hitchcock but still one of the finest mystery thrillers around. Ray Milland plays Tony Wendice, a former tennis player married to Grace Kelly's Margot, the source of his wealth. Fearing his lifestyle is about to come to an end due to her dalliances with American mystery writer, Mark Halliday (Robert Cummins), Tony hatches a plan to have her murdered by an old acquaintance whom he has over a barrel with blackmail. However, the plan backfires and a whole new strategy is needed to save Tony from suspicion.

Based on the popular and successful play by Frederick Knott (who adapts for the screenplay here), Dial M For Murder was a film Hitchcock had little time for. In fact, having already started work on Rear Window, Hitch treated Dial M For Murder as a jobbing assignment. His mood was further darkened by Jack Warner's insistence that the film be shot in 3D, with all the camera restraints that such a production brings. Perhaps unsurprisingly though, the restraints and general mood of the director brought about very interesting results. Choosing to go for a claustrophobic single set shoot, Hitchcock resisted the urge to launch things around for 3D effects, instead he used the process to highlight props and angles of the Wendice home. His use of colours here is first rate, particularly around his new found favourite actress, Grace Kelly.

Having never seen the 3D version (who has I wonder?) I can't say what impact, if any, the gimmick had. But regardless of Hitch's grumblings and general disdain towards the film, he rose to the challenge by challenging himself and actually produced a fine and technically sound picture. Ray Milland is icy cold yet debonair, while John Williams as Chief Inspector Hubbard strides in and walks off with the film. Kelly is adequate enough (it's her least effective turn for Hitch) but Cummings is awfully bland and threatens to lose the film its momentum when things spice up in the last quarter. Hugely entertaining story though, and of much interest to Hitchcock purists, Dial M For Murder holds up well today as a disquieting mystery thriller. 8/10

While this is not one of the most popular Alfred Hitchcock films out there, it is still brilliant.

You can immediately recognise this film has Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s signature on it from the way the film is shot and its story is told.

I did not know anything about the film before I started watching it and I am glad I did it. There were plenty of surprises to see me going to the end of the film.

Would I watch it again? Possibly. Would I make my friends watch it? Definitely.

A complicated set of overlapped schemes and sharp-witted conspirators collide in this classic piece of Hitchcockian suspense. The name of the game is inheritance, by way of a murder most foul, with an unfaithful wife (Grace Kelly) set up as the unwary victim. She’s a wealthy young socialite, bored by a trophy husband whose glory days are already in the past, while he’s a listless retired tennis ace who seeks to spin his jaded love’s infidelity into a comfortable life as a well-paid widower. In spending months preparing his ruse, it seems the villain has thought of everything, but, as we’re often told, even the best laid plans often go awry.

_Dial M For Murder_ has roots on the stage, where it enjoyed a favorable run, two years prior, on both sides of the Atlantic. As such, there’s plenty of quick-lipped dialogue and few changes in scenery, but it’s more than just filmed theater. Under Hitchcock’s enlightened direction, the screen brims with hints and cues. As various nasty plots come undone and/or bear fruit, the camera whirls and spins like a dizzied housewife, establishing a sense of overwhelmed helplessness. It’s crafty filmmaking, smart and inventive with no blatant flaunts. Doubly impressive when we consider its original format as a 3-D showpiece. This could’ve been an extra-tacky disaster, but instead it’s aged very gracefully. Thank the director’s restraint, and the razor-sharp script, in equal measures. _Dial M_ knows how to push my buttons.