In this post, we will take a look at two adaptations of the play ‘Dial M for Murder’, written by Frederick Knott. Wait Until Dark, a movie I recently reviewed, is also based on a play by the same playwright. I have briefly covered some of the commonalities between the movies, Dial M for Murder and Wait Until Dark in that review.

Today, let’s take a look at the Hitchcock classic Dial M for Murder and contrast it with A Perfect Murder.

Dial M For Murder (1954)

Dial M for Murder, directed by the master of suspense, Hitchcock, includes Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams in its cast. Set in the 50s, Tony Wendice (Milland) is a former professional tennis player married to Margot (Grace Kelly), a wealthy heiress. They reside in an upscale apartment in London. Tony is well aware that his wife is having an affair with an American novelist, Mark Holliday.

The entire plot unfolds within Margot and Tony’s luxury apartment.

When Mark arrives in London from the US, he meets Margot in the apartment while Tony is away. Margot reveals to Mark that she burnt all but one of the letters he had written to her. She informs Mark that she had placed the remaining letter in her handbag, which has now gone missing. Distressed, she confides in Mark that she’s been receiving blackmail letters written in capital letters to conceal the sender’s handwriting.

Upon Tony’s return, Margot introduces the men to each other. Tony insists that Mark join him at a poker party the following day.

In the subsequent scene, Tony arranges to meet an old acquaintance, Charles Schwan, privately at his home while his wife is out with Mark. With the calculated demeanor of a history professor narrating a Greek tragedy, Tony delivers a chilling monologue. He reveals how he discovered Margot’s affair by surreptitiously reading and preserving a letter from Mark, which he stole from Margot’s handbag.

He then describes how he contemplated killing Mark but ultimately decided to murder Margot instead. Her death would make him the sole beneficiary of her wealth, a more desirable outcome. Tony also reveals that he fabricated a blackmail scheme, sending Margot a letter pretending to be the blackmailer. His monologue further discloses that both he and Schwan attended Cambridge University. Interestingly, Tony, once a professional tennis player who competed at Wimbledon, ended up penniless until he married Margot. Schwan, on the other hand, became a small-time con man with a police record, exploiting vulnerable women for money. This revelation casts a shadow over the esteemed reputation of Cambridge University, reflecting the societal norms of the time.

Tony then manipulates Schwan, now implicating him as Margot’s blackmailer. Using the fact that Schwan’s fingerprints are on the letter as leverage, Tony blackmails him, promising payment for his cooperation. He outlines the devilish scheme to Schwan.

On the following night, Tony and Mark are away at the party, leaving Margot alone in the apartment. Before departing, Tony discreetly steals Margot’s key from her handbag and hides it in a stairwell carpet adjacent to the apartment within the same building. Upon their departure, Schwan enters the apartment using the key. He hides behind the living room curtains, close to the phone on a nearby desk.

At 10 PM, Tony calls the house from the party. Margot answers the phone, and as expected, Schwan emerges from the curtains to strangle her with a scarf. However, Margot, fighting for her life, grabs a pair of scissors and fatally stabs her attacker.

Tony, listening on the phone, is shocked to hear the struggle but maintains his composure. He returns to the apartment, retrieves the key from Schwan’s body, and places it back in Margot’s handbag. With calculated precision, he positions Mark’s letter on Schwan’s corpse, executing another layer of his sinister plan. He then contacts the police.

Chief Inspector Hubbard (Anthony Dawson) arrives at the scene and questions Tony and Margot. Upon finding Mark’s letter on Schwan, Hubbard assumes Schwan was blackmailing Margot about her affair with Mark. Consequently, he concludes that Margot invited Schwan to the apartment and murdered him.

Margot is implicated and sentenced to death row. Can she be saved? Will Mark, who trusts her, convince Hubbard to uncover the truth? Is Tony’s master plan flawless, or has he made a fatal assumption? The remainder of the plot unravels these questions.

Dial M for Murder is a thrilling journey from start to finish. Ray Milland delivers a captivating performance as the psychopathic Tony. He embodies the archetype of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a cunning and homicidal mastermind hiding behind a veneer of civility. The supporting cast, including Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams, also deliver commendable performances.

Despite the film’s single setting, the cinematography is visually striking. The color palette is tasteful, enhancing the overall aesthetic appeal of the movie. Grace Kelly epitomizes grace and elegance in her portrayal of Margot, portraying her as a rich, complex, and vulnerable character. Her stunning attire complements the vibrant hues of the settings, enriching the visual experience. ‘Dial M for Murder’ remains a timeless classic and a must-see for fans of mystery movies.

Please continue reading below for my review of “A Perfect Murder” and a comparison of the two movies.

A Perfect Murder (1998)

Many critics refer to ‘A Perfect Murder’ as an adaptation rather than a remake of Hitchcock’s ‘Dial M for Murder’, as the poster of ‘The Perfect Murder’ claims that it is based on the play by Frederick Knott rather than Hitchcock’s screenplay. In a future post, I will attempt to dispel confusion among the terms adaptation, remake, and homage.

‘A Perfect Murder’ is directed by Andrew Davis, known for his work on big-budget action movies. It stars Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Viggo Mortensen. As expected from Davis, the movie expands the setting beyond just a single apartment to include a rooftop art studio, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, other Manhattan locales, a lavish apartment, and more.

The dialogue has also been updated to be more contemporary and impactful. While preserving key elements of the original play, significant changes have been made to the characters and screenplay to make them more modern and relatable to a present-day audience. Davis has also streamlined the cast by combining the roles of the woman’s lover and the individual entrusted with murdering her into one character.

Luckily for Davis, he chose to adapt the movie toward the end of the 90s, when mobile phones, CC cameras, and smart locks did not exist, and landlines were still the norm. I doubt any filmmaker would take on the challenge to update the movie now or in the future.

The opening scene of the movie depicts a large rooftop artist’s studio in a high-rise building. As the camera moves through the paintings, it reveals a bed where a couple, a young man, and a woman, make love. The woman is Emily (Paltrow), an heiress to a large fortune, married to middle-aged Steven Taylor (Douglas), a Wall Street executive. The young man is David Shaw, an artist who lives and works out of the studio.

In the subsequent scene, Emily returns to her luxury apartment, where Steven politely welcomes her home and offers her a drink. “To stolen moments,” Steven proclaims as he toasts the occasion, hinting that he is aware of Emily’s secret.

Emily and Steven attend an event at a museum, where Emily introduces Shaw to Steven as her acquaintance and a great artist. Shaw tells Steven that he graduated from the Berkley School of Music. Steven later contacts Shaw and arranges to meet him in a diner, under the pretext of wanting to buy a painting. Here, similar to the earlier movie, Steven pretends to accidentally drop a set of letters that Shaw picks up and hands back to him. Steven takes Shaw to his rooftop studio, where he reveals his knowledge of Shaw’s illicit relationship with Emily.

To Shaw’s surprise, Steven reveals that he knows Shaw is a con man, who preys on women, has served time, and never attended Berkley. Threatening to expose these secrets to Emily, he recruits Shaw to murder her. For further instructions, Shaw is to meet Steven privately at the apartment he shares with Emily.

During the meeting, Steven outlines a plan where Shaw is to murder Emily while Steven is away for his weekly card game. This plan closely resembles the plot described in ‘Dial M for Murder’, except that Shaw is to enter the apartment through a service elevator rather than the front door. As this is an upscale New York apartment, anyone visiting it should first be cleared by the security personnel at the building’s entrance.

At this stage, the plot of the movie deviates from the screenplay of the play and its earlier movie adaptation, incorporating numerous original and well-conceived twists. David Suchet later makes his appearance in the movie, masterfully playing Mohamed Karaman, a New York police official investigating the case. His interactions with Emily are extremely engaging and heartwarming scenes in the movie.

However, it is the enterprising Emily who will play sleuth and try to resolve the situation in this adaptation of the movie. As mentioned earlier, “A Perfect Murder” is a well-made adaptation with numerous modifications for a more contemporary audience (note, however, that it was made in 1998). The new twists added make it interesting, even for those who have seen “Dial M for Murder”.

Douglas, as Steven, is radically different from Milland’s Tony. He is brash, rough-talking, assertive, and a polished New Yorker, yet equally impressive and fiendish as the well-mannered English gentleman. Paltrow’s Emily is not blonde like Grace Kelly’s Margot, but unlike the latter, she is enterprising enough to smell a rat and seek the truth herself. Mortensen’s Shaw is far more devious and cunning than both Schwan or David in “Dial M for Murder”. He can go toe-to-toe with Steven in a game of wits.

“It’s not happiness to see me, is it?” is another memorable line from the movie.

In summary, you cannot go wrong watching either of these two movies or both, in any order you prefer.