Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock,[4] starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams.

The play premiered in 1952 on BBC Television,[5] before being performed on stage in the same year in London's West End in June, and then New York's Broadway in October.

Originally intended to be shown in dual-strip polarized 3-D, the film played in most cinemas in ordinary 2-D owing to the loss of interest in the 3-D process (the projection of which was difficult and error-prone) by the time of its release.

Tony Wendice, a retired English professional tennis player, is married to wealthy socialite Margot, who has been having an affair with Mark Halliday, an American crime-fiction writer.

Swann will whistle over the phone to signal the job is done, then create signs of a burglary gone wrong and put the key back under the staircase carpet as he is leaving the building.

After I Confess (1953), Hitchcock planned to film The Bramble Bush, based on the 1948 novel by David Duncan, as a Transatlantic Pictures production, with partner Sidney Bernstein.

And after just four performances on Wednesday, some long-distance telephoning to report complaints, the increasing skimpiness of customers—a good many of them making no bones of their dissatisfaction—permission was given to throw away the glasses and hastily switch to the 2-D version.

[17] This revival performed so well that Warner Bros. did a limited national re-release of the film in February 1982 using Chris Condon's single-strip StereoVision 3-D system.

"[22] Harrison's Reports wrote that the film "shapes up as no more than a mild entertainment, despite the expert direction of Hitchcock and the competent acting of the players.

"[23] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post called the film "completely choice", with Williams and Dawson "smooth as silk in reprising their stage roles", adding, "Hitch has a field day with his camera angles, darting our eyes now here, now there, doing tingling tricks with shadows and long longshots in quick contrast to fuzzed close-ups.

"[24] John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote a generally positive review, writing that he wished the script would give Hitchcock "a chance to cut loose with one of those spectacular chases he used to specialise in", but finding that after a talky opening 30 minutes, "things speed up once the murder wheels are set in motion, and eventually the piece becomes grimly diverting".

The characters are fitted to their situations, and hardly exist in themselves (nor are they enlivened by the rather drab performances of Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings); only John Williams' dry, sardonic police inspector has a touch of individuality.

The website's consensus reads: "Dial M for Murder may be slightly off-peak Hitchcock, but by any other standard, it's a sophisticated, chillingly sinister thriller -- and one that boasts an unforgettable performance from Grace Kelly to boot.

[32] In 2022, another stage adaptation of Dial M for Murder written by Jeffrey Hatcher and approved by the Knott estate opened at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, California.

Hatcher kept the original setting of 1950s London but changed the character of "Max Halliday" to "Maxine Hadley," making the love affair with Margot a lesbian one.

[34][35] The film partially inspired a Hindi-language version in 1985, released as Aitbaar, starring Raj Babbar, Dimple Kapadia and Suresh Oberoi.

[36] A Perfect Murder is a 1998 remake directed by Andrew Davis in which the characters of Halliday and Swann are combined, with the husband (Michael Douglas) both hiring and coercing his wife's lover (played by Viggo Mortensen) into committing a contract killing of her (Gwyneth Paltrow).

[38] The 2002 Bollywood film Humraaz starring Bobby Deol, Akshaye Khanna, and Amisha Patel, was in turn inspired by A Perfect Murder.

[40] In 1956, NBC aired a television film in which Maurice Evans (as Tony), Williams and Dawson all repeated their roles from the original Broadway play.

[2] ABC produced a two-hour color version in 1967 featuring Laurence Harvey as Tony, Diane Cilento as Margot and Hugh O'Brian as Max.

[2][41] The episode "The Fifth Stair" of the TV series 77 Sunset Strip recreated Dial M for Murder, with Richard Long portraying Tony Wendice.

[2] Tony Wendice's Mistake [ru] (Ошибка Тони Вендиса), based on the stage play version of Dial M for Murder, aired in on TV in the Soviet Union in 1981.