Dial M For Murder Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings. The movie was adapted from a successful stage play by Frederick Knott, and was released by the Warner Bros. studio.thriller film Alfred HitchcockRay MillandGrace KellyRobert CummingsFrederick KnottWarner Bros. The screenplay and the stage play on which it was based were both written by English playwright Frederick Knott, whose work often focused on women who innocently become the potential victims of sinister plots.

The play premiered in 1952 on BBC television, before being performed on the stage in the same year in London's West End in June, and then New York's Broadway in October.BBC televisionNew York's The single setting in the stage play is the living-room of the Wendices' flat in London (61A Charrington Gardens). Hitchcock's film adds a second setting in a gentleman's club, the well of a staircase, a few views of the street outside, and a stylized courtroom montage.gentleman's club

Having seen the play on Broadway, popular American actor Cary Grant was keen to play the role of Tony Wendice, but studio chiefs did not feel the public would accept him as a man who arranges to have his wife murdered.Cary Grant In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten" list—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Dial M for Murder was ranked the ninth best film in the mystery genre.American Film InstituteTen Top Ten

Storyline In London, wealthy Margot Mary Wendice had a brief love affair with American writer Mark Halliday while her husband/professional tennis player Tony Wendice was on a tennis tour. Tony quits playing to dedicate time to his wife and find a regular job. She decides to give him a second chance for their marriage. When Mark arrives from America to visit the couple, Margot tells him that she has destroyed all his letters but one that was stolen.

Subsequently she was blackmailed, but she had never retrieved the stolen letter. Tony arrives home, claims that he needs to work and asks Margot to go with Mark to the theater. Meanwhile Tony calls Captain Lesgate (aka Charles Alexander Swann who studied with him at college) and blackmails him to murder his wife, so that he can inherit her fortune. But there is no perfect crime, and things do not work as planned.

The MacGuffin A MacGuffin is an object of interest around which the plot revolves. The term was made popular by director Alfred Hitchcock, who constantly used both the name and the technique. When the the MacGuffin is not a valuable object, it is often an object of interest – something that both heroes and villains want to get ahold of. In Hitchcock's Words "We call it the 'MacGuffin.' It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is almost always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers."

In North by Northwest, the MacGuffin is the microfilm – a clandestine copy of confidential Government documents. The villains are spies trying to smuggle the microfilm out of the United States. Notice that the secret in the microfilm is not important. We know neither what the microfilm contains nor who copied the documents. What matters is that it exists and its value is clearly established.

In a more poetic understanding, a MacGuffin doesn't always have to be a physical object. It could be a character. In Good Will Hunting, the MacGuffin is Will Hunting (Matt Damon), a peculiar young man. He is a genius but also a bully. He doesn't have much self-control, yet his intellect could make him a millionaire. He works as janitor at MIT. The other characters all revolve around Will. A professor tries to become his mentor, but first he has to mollify Will. Will's friends like his company, but Will's best friend really wishes that he would use his gift to get a good job.