Retrospective Film Review

Dial M for Murder (1954) • 70 Years Later — Hitchcock’s classic thriller attempts the perfect murder

A former tennis star arranges the murder of his adulterous wife.

So many films have tried to capture the perfect murder plot. There’s something strangely fascinating about it: perhaps it’s how other people’s minds can become warped to unleash their cunning, logical capacity for cold-blooded violence. But has anyone ever truly committed the perfect murder? Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) believes he’s about to.

In the last year, Tony has discovered that his wife, Margot (Grace Kelly), is having an affair. Rather than feeling angry, he becomes inordinately frightened: she looks exceptionally happy with her lover, Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings). Now that his tennis career is over, Tony realises how much he has come to depend on the financial security Margot provides him — and it’s slipping away.

Determined to inherit her fortune, Tony enlists Charles Swann (Anthony Dawson) to murder his wife in what he considers to be the perfect murder plot. However, no…