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Mark Llobrera

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Cover art forDial M for Murder

Dial M for Murder

Year
1954
Watched
Nov 28, 2023
Rewatch?
No

You fool, you do a murder for Grace Kelly

First time watching this—it felt like Hitchcock doing Poirot or Columbo. It makes sense that this originated as a play, so much is conveyed through dialogue. I just rewatched Rear Window, where so much of the exposition is done through the camera’s roving eye.

There’s a lot of pleasure to be had in the first half as Tony walks the audience (via Swann) through his airtight plan, but again it’s all very talky. You could imagine a version of this staged using the Mission Impossible films’ gimmick, where the plan is actually dramatized onscreen, even as the audience knows there’s no way it will actually unfold in that way.