Dial M For Murder

Hello there! Pull up a chair, or sit in the comfy carpet. The lemonade will be ready in a minute!

I don't know why this is the first Hitchcock movie I write about, let alone the first movie in this blog; I have no idea. It's not even one of my top favourites. But don't be fooled by that opinion. This movie is very, veeery good.

The plot is very much Hitchcockian (if I can say that!). Ex-tennis star Tony Wendice wishes to murder his wife Margot, who has an affair with crime-fiction writer Mark Halliday. Wendice fears she will leave him, and naturally take her money with her, on which he depends. The crime is almost perfect – but expect to see surprising complications with apparently insignificant objects involved in the crime such as scissors, a stocking and particularly, latchkeys.

The movie takes almost exclusively place in the Wendice's living room,apart from a very few scenes outside. However, I only noticed that after watching it; I never had a sort of "claustrophobic" feeling that may happen in such movies (although this is, as always, only my personal opinion). The sequences and shots just didn't let me think that. And it's fitting the movie should be set mainly in that living room, since it's based on a play (by Frederick Knott). Curiously, it was originally in 3D: it was all the rage and many directors and companies didn't want to be "left behind" (a lot like nowadays, come to think of it!). It must have been fantastic to watch it in 3D! The shot of Tony Wendice showing a latchkey, or that of his wife Margot stretching out her hand to the audience while being attacked were especially thought for the 3D effect. Another thing I irresistibly love in this Hitchcock movie (along with his other ones where Grace Kelly stars too) are the colors and the use the master of suspense gave them. Just an example: a white dress when Margot is with her husband, and a red passionate one when she's with her lover Mark.

The acting is superb, starring Ray Milland as Tony Wendice, Grace Kelly as Margot Wendice, and Robert Cummings as Mark Halliday; and, one of my personal favorites, John Williams as the brilliant police inspector Hubbard (no, not that John Williams. Another John Williams!) The great soundtrack is by Dimitri Tiomkin.

One scene evokes all the courtroom

procedures merely with a voiceover, changing lights and a constant shot of

Grace Kelly's face, but her expressions state with an amazing talent all

there is to know - and more. Ray Milland's role is outstanding: despite

playing a horribly despicable character, there is a strange empathy we feel towards him.

The movie is form 1954. The director? Hitchcock, of course. And oh boy,

you'll be hearing a lot about him and his movies in this blog. Trust me.

Here's a youtube link of its trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qWwFvsBVic

By the way: Hithcock's cameo appearance: he can be seen thirteen minutes into the film in a black-and-white reunion photograph sitting at a banquet table among former students and faculty.

Go watch it! Hope you enjoyed our weekly chit chat (cofcof, should I

say monologue on my part!) and that you'll be back next week for more.

Remember, comments are always welcome!

See ya! :)

Hello there!

Hello there! A warm welcome to you all out there, sitting in your chairs in your comfy bedrooms, offices and evil basements. I have welcomes for all tastes: a hug, a poke in the arm or a whack in the head. Another little blog has been born in the huge blogosphere. Isn't it thrilling?

(That sentence only had "i's", by the way. I find it quite fascinating).

Anyway. I will do my very best to nurse and nurture this tiny blog, hoping to get a few pats in the head and back from you folks occasionally. My logo? A film a week and you'll be a geek. Nah, just kidding. Takes even more awesomeness than that to be a geek.

I'll be updating every week, probably Saturdays, the holy free-time days. The movies I'll be talking about? Mainly what you'd call "old movies", those that I've liked a lot and feel you should watch too. (Or, if I'm feeling evil, one particularly bad to rant about. But don't worry. That won't happen a lot at all. Ahem). I'll cover some more recent movies too, from time to time. I won't be rating any of them, though; I hate rating things, anything at all.

Therefore, I'm afraid you'll have to put up (if you want to, that is) with my very subjective, very relative opinion. As such, comments are always most welcome. I don't have a large knowledge of cinema terms, either; so if you are an expert, please forgive my ignorance :)

Await other small things other than movie posts, too! And don't forget to bring your hot chocolate, cappuccino or cat to warm your lap.

See ya next week! =D

Written at Stuart Highway, Australia, local 5:12, 13 / 7 / 2011