Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock) 1954
Most notorious because it was filmed in 3-D, I’ve
actually seen Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder twice before (not counting
1998’s Gwenyth Paltrow / Michael Douglas starrer, A Perfect Murder,
which was a remake of the film) on television or video without the benefit of
its biggest gimmick, so when the opportunity presented itself to see the film in
3-D in a theater, I took up the chance, despite not being the film’s biggest
fan. Unfortunately, the razzle-dazzle (which is used mostly to push end tables
to the forefront of the frame) does little to boost what is at best a merely
adequate Hitchcock thriller.
The biggest problem with Dial is that the film’s
scope is too small and the level of suspense too low to thoroughly engage the
audience for the film’s running time. There are essentially four characters in
the film, and only one of them is really that sympathetic. The villain of the
piece, Tony Wendice (Ray Milland), seems to be the one that we spend the
greatest amount of our time with, so we end up placed in a position, like Psycho
where we are basically rooting for the bad guy, since we understand him the
most. Unlike Psycho, however, Wendice isn’t wounded in any way that
might make his treachery understandable, nor is he particularly clever. He’s
simply greedy and uninteresting, and Hitchcock’s typical sadistic desire to
manipulate us into rooting for a villain really backfires here.
The other characters don’t fare much better. I suppose
the heroes of the piece are Mrs. Wendice (Grace Kelly) and her boy toy, Mark
(Robert Cummings), but they’re far too doe-eyed and boring to connect with us.
Sure they’re pretty, and we would prefer that they triumph over Tony, but
that’s about as far as it goes. In fact, one gets the impression that
Kelly’s highbred character is slumming when she flirts with her author friend,
which makes their hot and heavy exchanges all the more laughable. Luckily,
Hitchcock seems to understand what a sad lot of characters these guys are, so
after the intermission, he trots out a savior. Brilliantly played by John
Williams, Police Inspector Hubbard deflates much of the pretentious twaddle that
the film had created up to that point. Far smarter than any of the other
characters, his presence is really a breath of fresh air here. It’s
unfortunate that the rest of the film is not similarly opened up with his
arrival.
The movie is obviously based on a stage play, and it
essentially takes place in one small apartment. Dial surely lacks the
technical bravado of Hitchcock’s Rope, though, despite the limited 3-D
effects, and the director shows off less than in usual films. As a result much
of the director’s sadism feels closer to the surface, since the usual
Hitchcock excuse for the ghoulish subject matter (it’s entertainment!)
doesn’t seem as applicable here. Worst of all, there’s actually very little
mayhem to be found, since the picture is so darn talky. While the film’s
distilled minimalism is somewhat admirable in a Zen sort of way, I’d take
Hitch’s full-blown set pieces any day over this stuff.
**1/2
Jeremy Heilman
12-25-01