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Select media
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Film details
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Featuring
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Country
USA
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Year
1954
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Genres
Crime Thriller
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Introduction
“The script sticks closely to a stage contraption by Frederick Knott, but Dial M [for Murder] is less a filmed play than a highly cinematic investigation of theatricality.”
B. Kite, The Village Voice, 2003
Alfred Hitchcock found his ideal ‘cool blonde’ in the shape of the 23-year-old Grace Kelly. In the first of three successive films for him she plays Margot, the victim of an elaborate murder plot by her suave husband (Ray Milland).
As with the earlier Rope (1948), Hitchcock stays true to the theatrical origins of the source material, shooting largely on a single set of a ground-floor London flat. Warner Bros demanded he shoot in 3D, which restricted his ability to move the camera. Though the film was largely released ‘flat’ following the decline of the 3D craze, the murder sequence itself remains a Hitchcock tour de force as Kelly grapples with her attacker, reaching a hand out towards us to grope for a pair of scissors.
Kelly went on to make Rear Window and To Catch a Thief for Hitchcock. Gwyneth Paltrow attempted to emulate her in the Dial M remake A Perfect Murder (1997).
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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Tony Wendice
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Margot Wendice
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Mark Halliday
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Chief Inspector Hubbard
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Swan, Captain Lesgate
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narrator
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Pearson
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Williams
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detective
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police sergeant
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[man in school reunion dinner photo]
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[detective]
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[detective]
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[detective]
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[police photographer]
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[man in phone booth]
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[bobby]
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Credits
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Unknown:
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Directed by
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©/Presents
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Production Company
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Assistant Director
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Screenplay by
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Script Collaborator
Ted Sherdeman (uncredited)
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As Adapted from His Play
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Director of Photography
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Film Editor
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Art Director
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Set Decorator
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Wardrobe by
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Makeup Artist
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Music Composed/Conducted by
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Sound by
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