40 Fun Facts About Dial M for Murder

Hitchcock shot Dial M for Murder in which format, a fading fad that most cinemas showed it without?

Stereoscopic 3-D was already out of fashion by the film's release, so most cinemas simply ran it flat. It was the first and only time Hitchcock shot a feature in the process.

In Dial M for Murder, what does Margot snatch from the desk to stab the intruder strangling her?

Scissors save Margot's life when she drives them into her attacker's back. Hitchcock fretted over the shot, complaining that the blades did not gleam enough.

Two years after Dial M for Murder, Grace Kelly quit acting to marry into the ruling family of which country?

Monaco gained a princess when Kelly married Prince Rainier III in April 1956, ending her film career at 26. Dial M for Murder was the first of her three Hitchcock thrillers.

Tony Wendice, the scheming husband in Dial M for Murder, is retired from which professional sport?

Tennis was the playwright's own game, which he handed to his villain. He was good enough to aim for Wimbledon, but the outbreak of the Second World War stopped him competing.

Which actor took over the murderous-husband role in A Perfect Murder, the 1998 remake of Dial M for Murder?

Michael Douglas plays a Wall Street trader who wants his wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, dead. The remake merges the lover and the hired killer into one man, played by Viggo Mortensen.

Trapped by the police in the last scene of Dial M for Murder, what does Tony Wendice calmly do?

Tony pours a drink and congratulates the inspector, a gentleman villain to the end. The trap closed when he fetched the hidden key himself, proving he knew where it was.

Dial M for Murder held its world premiere in which American city, the hometown of its star Grace Kelly?

Philadelphia's Randolph Theatre hosted the premiere on 18 May 1954. Kelly grew up in the city's East Falls district, in a house her father had built.

Anthony Dawson, the hired killer in Dial M for Murder, later played Professor Dent in which James Bond film?

Dr. No cast Dawson as the henchman Professor Dent. He went on to supply the body of the faceless Blofeld, stroking a white cat, in two later Bond adventures.

Ray Milland, the villain of Dial M for Murder, had won a Best Actor Oscar playing an alcoholic in which film?

The Lost Weekend, Billy Wilder's 1945 drama, made Milland the first Welsh-born actor to win an Academy Award. Before that he had been known mainly for light comedies.

Why does Tony Wendice, who has discovered Margot's affair, want his wife dead in Dial M for Murder?

Tony plans to inherit her fortune because he fears a divorce would leave him penniless. He has secretly known about Margot's affair for months and has even blackmailed her anonymously.

Where does Tony Wendice hide the latchkey that lets the hired killer into the flat in Dial M for Murder?

Under the stair carpet is the hiding place that undoes Tony. The killer puts the key back there before going in, not after, so the key Tony takes from the body is the dead man's own.

Which thriller, also starring Grace Kelly, was Hitchcock already planning while he shot Dial M for Murder?

Rear Window was on his mind throughout. Kelly recalled that he sat and talked to her about it all through the shoot, before they had even discussed her being in it.

Grace Kelly talked Hitchcock out of a velvet robe for the attack scene in Dial M for Murder; what did she wear?

A nightgown was Kelly's own idea. She argued that a woman alone in a flat would not dress up to answer a ringing phone at night, and Hitchcock admitted that was better.

In Dial M for Murder, Tony Wendice blackmails Charles Swann, his old classmate from which university?

Cambridge is where the two men were students together, and where the playwright himself read law. Tony has quietly tracked Swann's petty swindles for some time before he pounces.

Which Hollywood studio, fresh from its hit House of Wax, produced Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder?

Warner Bros. wanted another hit like House of Wax and pressed its new camera rig on Hitchcock, who went along, possibly with reluctance. He later called the job a routine contract picture.

Which English playwright wrote both the stage hit Dial M for Murder and the screenplay for Hitchcock's film?

Frederick Knott was a reluctant writer who finished only a handful of plays, then lived comfortably on what they earned. His script kept the stage version almost intact.

The author of Dial M for Murder later wrote which stage thriller, filmed with Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman?

Wait Until Dark opened on Broadway in 1966 and reached cinemas a year later, bringing Hepburn an Academy Award nomination. Its author then gave up writing plays altogether.

Which High Noon composer wrote the score for Dial M for Murder, his fourth for an Alfred Hitchcock film?

Dimitri Tiomkin had already scored Shadow of a Doubt and Strangers on a Train for the director. For these suspense dramas he favoured a lush style built on solo violins and muted trumpets.

How does Alfred Hitchcock make his customary cameo in Dial M for Murder, which rarely leaves one flat?

In a reunion photograph, Hitchcock sits at a banquet table among former students, near the film's villain and his hired killer. He turns up about thirteen minutes in.

In Dial M for Murder, which of Tony Wendice's garments does Chief Inspector Hubbard secretly swap for his own?

Raincoat pockets are the point of the trick: Tony's latchkey is in his, so by walking off in it the inspector gains a way back into the flat once Tony has gone.

In Dial M for Murder, what does Tony Wendice find in Margot's stolen handbag and use to blackmail her?

A love letter from Mark Halliday gives Tony proof of the affair. He blackmails Margot anonymously, never collects her money, and later plants the same note on the dead man.

Mark Halliday, Margot's American lover in Dial M for Murder, makes his living writing what?

Crime fiction is Mark's trade, and the film teases him for it: he claims he could plot a flawless killing on paper, yet admits that in real life he would overlook some detail and be caught.

After Margot is convicted of killing Swann in Dial M for Murder, what sentence does the court pass on her?

The death penalty turns the last act into a race against the clock. The inspector springs his trap on the day before Margot is due to be executed.

What does Mark Halliday find on the bed, stuffed with banknotes, near the end of Dial M for Murder?

An attaché case full of banknotes was meant to be the killer's fee. Tony had amassed the cash through small bank withdrawals over the past year so that nothing would show.

On what pretext does Tony Wendice first lure Charles Swann to his flat in Dial M for Murder?

Buying a car is Tony's cover story: Swann has one for sale, and haggling over the price gets him through the door. Only then does Tony reveal how much he knows about his guest.

Which actor won a Tony Award as Inspector Hubbard on Broadway, then repeated the role in Dial M for Murder?

John Williams turned his stage inspector into a busy screen career. In the same year he played the chauffeur in Sabrina, and Hitchcock soon cast him again as an insurance man in To Catch a Thief.

Dial M for Murder was released in the same year as which Grace Kelly drama, the film that won her an Oscar?

The Country Girl won Kelly the Best Actress Academy Award ahead of Judy Garland in A Star Is Born. She played the long-suffering wife of an alcoholic actor, a world away from Margot.

Robert Cummings, Mark Halliday in Dial M for Murder, had starred in which earlier Hitchcock wartime thriller?

Saboteur, made in 1942, cast Cummings as an aircraft factory worker wrongly suspected of arson who becomes the target of a manhunt. Twelve years on, Hitchcock made him the wife's lover.

Grace Kelly was under contract elsewhere, so which studio lent her out for Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder?

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer held Kelly's contract and loaned her to the production. Hitchcock later claimed she was the most cooperative actress he had ever directed.

Almost every scene of Dial M for Murder takes place in a flat in which district of London?

Maida Vale, an affluent district of mansion flats, is home to the Wendices. Hitchcock said he did his best to avoid going outside, stressing the story's theatrical side.

The American Film Institute's 10 Top 10 lists ranked Dial M for Murder ninth among films of which genre?

Mystery movies were the category, and Hitchcock dominated it with four of the ten places. The institute had earlier ranked Dial M for Murder 48th among America's most thrilling pictures.

Which sitcom named a sixth-season episode Dial M for Martin, a nod to Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder?

Frasier built the episode around the title character's father, who comes to believe that his younger son Niles is subconsciously trying to kill him after a string of mishaps.

Before it reached the West End stage, where was the play Dial M for Murder first performed?

On BBC television is where the thriller began, as a live ninety-minute broadcast in March 1952. London's theatrical managers had spent months turning the script down.

For the title close-up of Dial M for Murder, Hitchcock built a giant dial and which other oversized prop?

A wooden finger was needed because the bulky camera could not focus closely enough on a real one dialling the M. Hitchcock had both giant props specially constructed.

What experiment did Hitchcock try with Grace Kelly's wardrobe over the course of Dial M for Murder?

Colours grew more sombre as Margot's troubles deepened. Hitchcock dressed Kelly in gay, bright shades at the start and drained them away as the plot thickened.

Which actress starred with Christopher Plummer in a 1981 American TV remake of Dial M for Murder?

Angie Dickinson and Plummer headed the 1981 remake, directed by Boris Sagal. An earlier American TV version, shown in 1967, had Laurence Harvey as the scheming husband.

Under what assumed name is Charles Swann living when Tony Wendice tracks him down in Dial M for Murder?

Captain Lesgate is the alias the small-time confidence man is using when Tony first rings him. Anthony Dawson had already played the part on Broadway before Hitchcock filmed it.

In the original stage play Dial M for Murder, what is the first name of the lover the film calls Mark?

Max Halliday became Mark when the play was filmed. A 2022 stage rewrite went further and turned the character into a woman, Maxine Hadley.

In Dial M for Murder, what task does Tony Wendice set Margot to keep her home on the fatal night?

Filling his scrapbook with press cuttings keeps Margot in for the evening. Before leaving for his club, Tony also slips the latchkey out of her handbag.

Which film mogul bought the screen rights to Dial M for Murder for only £1,000 before it reached the stage?

Alexander Korda got a bargain and soon resold the rights to Hollywood for many times the price. The playwright had taken the small sum because no theatre manager yet wanted his script.