Dial M For Murder (3D) (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) US

Reviewed by Lauren Jackson. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, 2013.

Of course it being Hitchcock will most people assume that it is going to be a very good murder mystery.

Perhaps because I had watched it late at night, and I was already tired from having school all day, but I caught myself falling asleep here and there through out the film.

Good film, yes, but the one thing I am not used to, is long dialogue. Very long extended scenes. Nothing like “Rear Window”.

Dial M for Murder takes place in an apartment. From the beginning we are introduced to the killer. He talks a lot, plans ahead as to how his wife should be killed.

Once his first attempt fails and ends up getting his killer killed. Detectives get involved and soon the case is not solved until the very end.

Not that I did not like the film, but I found myself losing my attention span to the long dialogue, drawn out scenes. I have seen other Hitchcock films and like them a lot. This 2 hr film just was not my type of mystery.