Thursday, March 09, 2006

Hitched Again

I watched Dial M for Murder (1954) the other night, the last in a long line of Alfred Hitchcock films that I had TiVo'ed over the last year. It's been sitting on my menu of movies to watch for four or five months but, as it turns out, this one may be my new favorite!

Above all else it was an intelligent plot, a rare commodity in movies old or new. The main character plots the perfect murder but when his ingenious plot goes awry, his "Plan B" is still better than the plotting of most movie bad guys. It's also fun when the protagonist is the bad guy, leaving you to root against him instead of for him.

As I found out later, this movie was based on a play by the same name. Since the movie takes place almost entirely in one room with a cast of only five speaking parts, it felt a lot like a play; and I'd love to see this one performed live.

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