A Perfect Murder is a 1998 American crime thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and starring Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Viggo Mortensen.

It is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film Dial M for Murder, though the characters' names have been changed and much of the plot has been rewritten and altered from its original form.

He takes the key from the body, puts it back on Emily's keychain, damages the service entrance door, and plants a screwdriver on the assailant.

She quietly makes inquiries and learns that Steven's extremely risky margin trades on the stock market are unraveling.

When he saw her dead assailant in their kitchen, he assumed it was David and took the key from his pocket to shield Emily from facing murder charges.

NYPD Detective Karaman later comforts a heartbroken Emily, telling her not to blame herself; as she had no choice but to kill Steven in self defense.

Both films make use of the mystery of the fact that no key was found on the dead man when he was killed by both Kelly and Paltrow's characters, as both their husbands had removed them in an attempt to pin the crime on their wives.

Presumably in homage to the original film, Douglas's character greets Paltrow exactly the same way when she arrives home to their apartment at the beginning of A Perfect Murder.

The title A Perfect Murder matches the translation that was made in some countries of Hitchcock's film, known in Italian as Il delitto perfetto and in Spanish as Crimen perfecto; in French it was Le crime était presque parfait.

[5] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly commented, " I’ve seen far worse thrillers than “A Perfect Murder,” but the movie is finally more competent than it is pleasurable.

The story's most compelling character, an Arab American detective (the superb British actor David Suchet), becomes a minor player here.

"[7] Paul Clinton of CNN observed, "This production is stylishly mounted... Douglas is an excellent actor and a gifted producer.

"[8] Roger Ebert, who gave the film three stars out of four, wrote "[It] works like a nasty little machine to keep us involved and disturbed; my attention never strayed".

[9] Meanwhile, James Berardinelli wrote that the film "has inexplicably managed to eliminate almost everything that was worthwhile about Dial M for Murder, leaving behind the nearly-unwatchable wreckage of a would-be '90s thriller.