Dial M For Murder (1954) IMDB Top 250 Guest Review

Today’s IMDB Top 250 Guest Review comes from Zoe of The Sporadic Chronicles Of A Beginner Blogger. She’s already reviewed The Godfather: Part I (HERE) and Part II (HERE) as well as The Departed (HERE) and The Green Mile (HERE) and Big Fish (HERE) and Snatch (HERE). Thanks once again for all these reviews, Zoe! 🙂 Now let’s see what she has to say about Dial M For Murder, IMDB rank 167 out of 250.

There are still some movies up for grabs if anyone wants to do a guest IMDB Top 250 review. You can find the list of remaining films HERE. See the full list & links to all the reviews that have already been done HERE.

Also, if you’d like to add a link to your IMDB Review(s) on your own blogs, feel free to use any of the logos I’ve used at the top of any of these guest reviews.

So Miss Mutant still had a few movies on her “to take” list for her IMDB Top 250 challenge. I know I have taken quite a few, but I had very recently watched Dial M For Murder for the Alfred Hitchcock blogathon that Rob of Movie Rob and I hosted. Lo and behold, Dial M For Murder was still lingering, looking for a taker. I figured because it was so fresh in my mind, I might as well.

SYNOPSIS: An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to murder his wife. When things go wrong, he improvises a brilliant plan B. – via IMDB

“People don’t commit murder on credit.” – Tony Wendice

I had never seen Dial M For Murder prior to it being on my Hitchcock films to watch. Getting to it certainly proved it was one of the better ones that I had seen during my run. This presents a solid film from Hitchcock, and it was decent. While maybe not my favourite of his, it had a lot going for it.

I enjoyed the cast. Grace Kelly is an absolute beauty, and I still think Robert Cummings is a real cutie, and I enjoyed him here as a mystery writer Mark Halliday. Although I thought it was wrong for Margot to be cheating on Tony (Ray Milland) with Mark, and there is no way to justify it, the man was neglectful and careless with his relationship with his stunning wife, and ultimately viewed her as nothing more than keeping him in the right circles and serving as her meal ticket. She deserved a man to honour her and treasure her, such as Mark, but it still isn’t right how they went about that. If Tony was such a prat, she should have just left him.

Besides my moral gripe, the movie has many other things going for it. The plot was very simple, and laid out in a straightforward manner. Sometimes bells and whistles do detract from the overall experience of a film, when people try to get too fancy and smart, they leave holes and continuity issues. This one came together nicely, and was paced well. John Williams portrayed Chief Inspector Hubbard fantastically, and he was certainly a character I enjoyed thoroughly.

Dial M For Murder was shot nicely, the performances were solid all round, and the score complemented the film. Cummings and Kelly shared some great chemistry, even though there was not much of it on screen all the time. However, when it was, it was great. Tony’s scheme was really clever – on paper and in his mind – but it was evident that he had not thought of any possible unforeseen circumstances, which provided an interesting concept on how he was going to deal with all the little things that started popping up all over the show. His flawless Plan A suddenly doesn’t look so grand anymore, and his impromptu Plan B seems to be so much better laid out than the original, anyhow. Much… neater, almost. Definitely a decent watch to look into, escpecially if you enjoy Hitchcock!