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Dial M for Murder, by Frederick Knott.
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Quoted from introduction on site:-
"Dial M for Murder is a thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Grace Kelly, Ray Milland and Robert Cummings and released by Warner Brothers. The film was based on the almost identical stage play of the same title by English playwright Frederick Knott. Dial M for Murder premiered in 1952 as a BBC television play, before being performed on the stage in the same year. The screenplay was written by Knott, who moved to the U.S. in 1954 and wrote only one other well-known play, Wait Until Dark, which was filmed a year later. He also wrote a lesser-known play, Write Me a Murder, which ran for 196 performances at Belasco Theater."
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Before one read that, one assumed the excellence of the script was a but of course, since the film was an Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece. As it is, now that one knows the author wrote Wait Until Dark as well, the excellence began with the author. One would have liked the author to have written more, and the pair, Knott and Hitchcock, to do much more together.
It wouldn't be possible to write about the Hitchcock film without giving away everything and gushingly, too, but it's far better to see it.
Before one read that, one assumed the excellence of the script was a but of course, since the film was an Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece. As it is, now that one knows the author wrote Wait Until Dark as well, the excellence began with the author. One would have liked the author to have written more, and the pair, Knott and Hitchcock, to do much more together.
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It wouldn't be possible to write about the Hitchcock film without giving away everything and gushingly, too, but it's far better to see it.
It was remade comparatively recently, with Michael Douglas replacing Ray Milland, and much more glamour, set in New York. And they introduced slight complications - the purity of the wife was perhaps not to taste of the remakers. Here there was an artist lover, and complications escalated until the husband is caught and worse - and its not just the police who catch him.
And while this remake is quite good, still, the original excells, as Hitchcock often does.
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December 30, 2020.
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