In the book of dialogues between François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock, the master of thrillers states that he does not think there would be much to discuss about ‘Dial M for Murder‘. Truffaut contradicts him immediately and rightly so. ‘Dial M for Murder‘ is a special film in Alfred Hitchcock‘s filmography, the adaptation of a theater play, a seemingly trivial film and which has many reasons to be strongly marked by the 67 years since it was filmed. And yet, even for the contemporary viewer, this film offers many reasons for interest and satisfaction. The main reason is that Hitchcock does not hesitate to look for and invent the most appropriate means to tell the story and create suspense, turning the interesting but quite conventional detective plot into a significant theatrical and cinematic experiment.
The screenplay is written by Frederick Knott who adapts his own text that was successful on stage in London. It was originally a script for the BBC and has all the characteristics of the genre – a complex plot, a dramatic structure based largely on dialogues between smart criminals and equally smart cops, who play sophisticated games of cat and mouse, full of traps and brilliant reasoning. The story seems simple. A man discovers that his beautiful wife is cheating on him and plans to assassinate her. He hires a paid assassin through blackmail, but his plans to commit a perfect crime fail, as do any plans to commit a perfect crime. The main heroine survives the attack but gets into big trouble, like all Hitchcock heroines. I will not write any more details leaving you the pleasure of discovering the plot and the solution by yourself, but I will warn you that things are much more complicated than they seem, and the road to revealing the truth will be long, a road sprinkled with surprises for the viewers.
As always in Hitchcock‘s movies, it is interesting to watch what happens on screen and also how Hitchcock presents what happens on screen. The master director never hides the fact that he is adapting a play. Most of the story takes place in the London couple’s apartment, and the view is that of the spectator in the spectator’s armchair. I don’t remember whether we ever see the fourth wall of the room. However, the perspective is far from static, and that is why we never have any feeling of claustrophobia, or the impression that we are witnessing a filmed theater show. Hitchcock experiments a lot of new tricks in this film, from 3D cinematography or unusual filming angles, sometimes raising his camera to the height of the roof of the house, other times placing it on the floor. He also uses the technique of oversized objects to exaggerate perspectives at a time when computerized special effects where not yet even dreamed of. Dimitri Tiomkin‘s music dramatically accompanies the action and is one of the best in Hitchcock‘s films. Grace Kelly‘s acting performance (in the first of her three collaborations with Hitchcock) is remarkable, she is beautiful and charismatic, and Robert Robert Burks‘ camera follows her with devotion and admiration. Among her male partners, Ray Milland honorably plays the role of the cheating and vengeful husband, while John Williams fits well into the role (and the overcoat) of the police inspector. Excessive verbosity may sound very artificial to today’s viewers, but at Hitchcock the text, music and image combine to provide the multimedia cinematic experience. The entertainment in this case is of good quality.