DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954) **1/2 Only Alfred Hitchcock could make a mystery film that is highly entertaining, and in which the most fascinating moment is an interior telephone shot. It's all very cerebral, to the extent that watching people standing around talking in a nondescript apartment can be; and harkens back to the days when heiresses had more money than world class tennis players. So society is moving forward, however slowly. Hitchcock's more understated than usual, celebrating fewer eruptions of his blatantly unique signature sequences, but it's easy to get behind Grace Kelly in any showdown with Ray Milland. The finest moments are probably John Williams being a very British detective, and the most insightful and visionary those of Grace on trial. Short cinematic moments of Kafka meets minimalism through Hitchcock's lens, those, and viewers who like a film that closes with a criminal fixing himself a drink won't be disappointed.
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