In London, wealthy Margot Mary Wendice had a brief love affair with the American writer Mark Halliday while her husband and professional tennis player Tony Wendice was on a tennis tour. Tony quits playing to dedicate to his wife and finds a regular job. She decides to give him a second chance for their marriage. When Mark arrives from America to visit the couple, Margot tells him that she had destroyed all his letters but one that was stolen. Subsequently she was blackmailed, but she had never retrieved the stolen letter. Tony arrives home, claims that he needs to work and asks Margot to go with Mark to the theater. Meanwhile Tony calls Captain Lesgate (aka Charles Alexander Swann who studied with him at college) and blackmails him to murder his wife, so that he can inherit her fortune. But there is no perfect crime, and things do not work as planned. ~ IMDB
Hitchcock's Cameo -- a group photo of Tony Wendice's college days
I hadn't seen Dial M for Murder in several years and surprised me how well it has held up.
Suspense, Hitchcock's trademark and hits it on the head in this scene in particular. Tony having to listen to his wife's certain murder was brilliant. I chewed my fingernails at the events happening on each side of the line, torn with disgust (on Tony's part and trepidation with Margo). It was a great balence between the two.
My one complaint is how ridiculously stupid and naive Margo Wendice was. The beautiful Grace Kelly acts it out to a t but still annoyed me. I just wish she was a little more than a dumb blond with a pretty face. Otherwise, it was a great thriller only jogging my memory with "I remember this" only seconds before it happens. Hitchcock has a way of pulling you in, losing all track of time and place, with Dial M for Murder a thrilling film.
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"It's important right now that we talk, killer to killer."
Unlike Addison DeWitt I would not like to talk killer to killer but rather as movie lover to movie lover. What do you think?