Dial M for Murder

We've all grown up seeing Hitchcock movies, and one of his best ones I think is "Dial M for Murder".

Dial M for Murder (1954) is a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Grace Kelly, Ray Milland, and Robert Cummings, and released by Warner Brothers. The movie was based on the almost identical stage play of the same title by English playwright Frederick Knott (1916-2002).

The Plot:

Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) is a former tennis player who married Margot (Grace Kelly) partly for her money. To please his wife, he has given up tennis and now sells sports equipment. Margot once had a relationship with Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings), a crime writer for American TV, but broke it off when Mark went to the U.S. for a year. In time, they stopped writing to each other.

Tony and Margot have made their wills, naming each other as beneficiary. For a year, Tony meticulously plans Margot's murder. She has no idea that Tony knows of her love for Mark. He has gone to great lengths to steal a handbag containing one of Mark's letters, and even assumed the role of an anonymous Brixton-based blackmailer to find out whether she would pay to have it back.(She did, but he asked for only £50.) He even watched them having a little farewell party (eating spaghetti with mushrooms) in Mark's studio flat in Chelsea.

Tony slyly withdraws small amounts of money for a year, collecting £1,000 in (used) one-pound notes, with which he plans to pay a contract killer. He singles out the perfect man to do the job: C. A. Swann (Anthony Dawson), who now calls himself "Captain Lesgate", an old schoolmate who had embarked on a life of petty crime when they were students together. Tony knows that now he will be able to blackmail Swann into murdering his wife....

For the rest of the story....watch the movie - don't miss it!

Popcorn, a blanket and the movie - just be sure not to have your wife by the side :-)