Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams
Have I Seen it Before: Never. I know. I’ll admit I’ve seen the scene of Wendice (Milland) coming back after nearly getting away with it, as it’s playing in the background of The West Wing episode “Ellie.” I didn’t even really intend to do a double-featue of this and Rear Window (1954), but here we are.
Did I Like It: Dial M is certainly on a smaller scale of Hitchcock movies than Rear Window. One might even complain that it is on such a small scale that it is relying on its plot to make magic. That might be considered a note against it, but I maintain that’s not the case. In years past, I’ve been a sucker for a byzantine plot, and as years go on I’m less impressed by plot alone. Maybe I’m becoming a sentimentalist, but the human element needs to be there, too.
The human element might be a little slight here, mainly because all of the characters to seem to be depressingly void of much human warmth, stretching from the bored and unfaithful Mrs. Wendice (Kelly) to the downright psychopathic Tony (Milland). The magic of the film comes in the expert deploying of its suspense. There’s never a point as Chief Inspector Hubbard (Williams) begins picking at the characters various stories that I feel absolutely certain how this is going to end. In the early portions of the film, it seems like Tony’s plan might work out as he seems to have planned, and he’ll have to spend the rest of the fim dealing with Swann (Anthony Dawson) in a variation on Strangers on a Train (1951). When the plan goes haywire (or maybe this was the plan all along; Tony is devious that way) I spend the rest of the fim thinking that the film will be content to send Grace Kelly to the electric chair and have Ray Milland whistle off into the sunset, or perhaps have the rope of the law close in on him as his story falls apart.
One of those ends up being the answer, you should probably watch it yourself. Go do it now.