Dial M for Murder

Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams. Both the screenplay and the successful stage play on which it was based were written by English playwright Frederick Knott. The play premiered in 1952 on BBC Television, before being performed on stage in the same year in London's West End in June, and then New York's Broadway in October. Originally intended to be shown in dual-strip polarized 3-D, the film played in most theatres in ordinary 2-D due to the loss of interest in the 3-D process (the projection of which was difficult and error-prone) by the time of its release. The film earned an estimated $2.7 million in North American box office sales in 1954. Plot In the mid-1950s, Tony Wendice, a retired English professional tennis player, is married to wealthy socialite Margot, who has been having an affair with American crime-fiction writer Mark Halliday. Unbeknownst to them, Tony knows about the affair and plots Margot's murder to inherit her fortune, fearing a divorce would leave him penniless. Tony is also aware that Charles Swann, an old acquaintance from Cambridge University, is a small-time con man with a criminal record. Tony invites Swann to his Maida Vale flat on a pretext, and tells him about Margot's affair. Tony also confides that six months previously, he stole Margot's handbag, which contained a love letter from Mark, and anonymously blackmailed her. After tricking Swann into leaving his fingerprints on the letter, Tony entraps him, threatening to turn him in as Margot's blackmailer unless he kills Margot. With the added inducement of £1,000 in cash, Swann agrees to the murder. Tony then explains that he and Mark will attend a party while Margot stays home alone. At a specific time when Margot is certain to be in bed, Swann will enter the front door, which is always unlocked, and will enter the locked door of the flat with Margot's latchkey, which Tony will hide on the staircase under a carpet. Tony will then telephone the flat from the party and Swann will kill Margot when she answers the call. Swann will whistle over the phone to signal the job is done, then create signs of a burglary gone wrong, and return the key back under the staircase carpet as he is leaving the building.