"...is that you, darling?": DIAL M FOR MURDER

As you are swept into the clever plotting of a murder by a husband played brilliantly by Ray Milland, you cannot grasp why anyone, even a betrayed husband, might want to kill Grace Kelly. Good thing that cell phones weren't around in the 50's. If so, Grace Kelly would never have had to leave her bed, to answer that potentially fatal phone call in the living room. The lighting in this film is practically another character...it should have gotten an Oscar. No matter how often you view this well-plotted thriller, you still want to yell, "Look out Grace...there's a murderer behind you!". Hitchcock makes you want to help her...what a rescue fantasy! Grace Kelly is wonderfully cast as good girl, and you pay no attention to the little matter of her extra-marital affair.

I just read "Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and his Leading Ladies" With Grace Kelly, Hitchcock felt he had molded the young actress into his ideal woman: elegant, with a cool, understated sexuality. When she left Hollywood to get married, he resented her leaving and never spoke to her again. Every aspect of her appearance in his films was designed and monitored by Hitchcock in order to create his fantasy woman.

It's so rare today to see a film where every word and scene is so cleverly plotted. In this one you see the brilliant doing and wonderful undoing of a murder. Rent it! Watch it again...and again.