Dial M for Murder

Since I loved Vertigo, I figured that I ought to see more of Alfred Hitchcock's movies. Dial M for Murder was great--just scary enough for me (which is to say, not all that scary for a normal person) and over-the-top dramatic. Some of the shots were just gorgeous.

I must be the ideal viewer--I am utterly surprised by everything that happens next. Like a good detective story, Hitchcock in one way gives everything away (he zooms dramatically in on the relevant clues), and in another way doesn't--nothing works out the way it's supposed to. As Margot Wendice's (Gracy Kelly) illicit lover, detective writer, Mark Halliday says, the perfect murder is possible in a book, but in life things don't go the way that they're supposed to. So I was surprised when Tony Wendice decided to attempt to kill his wife, and I was surprised when the murder didn't work out, and I was surprised when he tried to frame his wife, and I was surprised when they caught him. But this is just what's so delightful about detective fiction, isn't it?--the author or director has control over what you know, so they can intentionally mislead you repeatedly. It's like a roller coaster. The best part of the movie was when Mark Halliday inadvertently solved the mystery--he just thought he was creating a fiction in order to save the woman that he loved, but he was actually figuring out what Tony had done.

Almost the entire movie was set in the Wendice's small apartment--and most of it was in their living room. It was a very chatty movie--they were always talking through their various plans. Actually, aside from the attempted murder, not all that much happens. What with the lighting and music, though, it feels like the most profound things in the world happen.

It's interesting to think about this film alongside Auden's essay on detective fiction. His central idea is that detective stories reveal an escapist longing for a return to innocence through the punishment and expulsion of sin. This theory doesn't work with Dial M for Murder at all: the attempted murder does not occur in the context of innocence, but rather in the context of an affair. In fact, it is the affair itself that makes Tony worry that Margot will leave him, taking her fortune with him. He would then be a penniless ex-tennis pro with fine taste. He decides to arrange for her murder so that he can ensure that he'll have plenty of money. Dial M for Murder differs from the detective stories that Auden describes in another important way--it isn't the case that there are finite number of people who have attempted the murder, and as readers we don't know who it is. Rather, we know exactly who it is who did it and how and why. What we don't know is if he will be discovered, nor all the missteps that might lead to his discovery.

I must also say something about Trader Joe's lemon and ginger snap ice cream: it's incredible. Run and buy some as fast as you can. This is relevant because that's what we were eating while we were watching the movie.