Dial 'M' for Murder, 1954

repost (original post: September 28, 2011)

Director: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Stars: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings

When ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice (Milland) discovers that his wife Margot (Kelly) is having an affair with her old school friend Mark (Cummings), he begins to plan her murder.

His intricate plan involves hiring someone to kill his wife, preferably someone who can be blackmailed into it. After finding the perfect man for the job, Wendice explains the whole detailed plan to him, and the next night, while Wendice takes Mark to a party (using Mark as his alibi), the murderer is to get in using a key Wendice hid for him, and then strangle his wife when she goes to answer the telephone call from Wendice himself. Everything goes just fine.....until Margot fights back as she's being strangled, and ends up stabbing her assailant with a pair of scissors.

I LOVE this film. Wendice is chilling. Mark is desperate to protect Margot. And the detective in charge (John Williams) is absolutely brilliant in the way he solves the crime.

Saboteur, 1942

Director: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Stars: Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Otto Kruger

Barry (Cummings) is on the run from the bad guys and the police when he is falsely accused of setting fire to the aircraft factory where he and his best friend worked. As this factory made aircraft for use in the war, this was a distinctly anti-American act. But Barry has a clue to who might have started it, because of a chance encounter at work, and he sets out on his own to prove his innocence because if he waits for the police, it will be too late. The bad guys are planning some big event and he must stop it.

But he isn't completely alone. When he seeks shelter in a cabin in the woods, he meets Pat (Lane), who eventually comes to believe that he is telling the truth.

Because of Robert Cummings, this is one of my favorites of Hitch's films! Cummings is so brilliant. (And handsome, too!) Hitch has a common theme of the common man being wrongfully accused. And Cummings plays it well.

CAMEO: Hitch appears on the street when the real Saboteur's car stops, and it's actually about an hour into the movie.

Dial 'M' for Murder, 1954

Director: Alfred Hitchcock (The 39 Steps, Torn Curtain, The Birds, Vertigo, Saboteur, Topaz, Rear Window, etc....)

Stars: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings

When ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice (Milland) discovers that his wife Margot (Kelly) is having an affair with her old school friend Mark (Cummings), he begins to plan her murder.

His intricate plan involves hiring someone to kill his wife, preferably someone who can be blackmailed into it. After finding the perfect man for the job, Wendice explains the whole detailed plan to him, and the next night, while Wendice takes Mark to a party (using Mark as his alibi), the murderer is to get in using a key Wendice hid for him, and then strangle his wife when she goes to answer the telephone call from Wendice himself. Everything goes just fine.....until Margot fights back as she's being strangled, and ends up stabbing her assailant with a pair of scissors.

I LOVE this film. Wendice is chilling. Mark is desperate to protect Margot. And the detective in charge (John Williams) is absolutely brilliant in the way he solves the crime.