Dial M for Murder

Dial M for Murder (1954) 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 (1916-2002). Dial M for Murder premiered in 1952 as a BBC television play, before being performed on the stage in the same year (West End in June, and then Broadway in October). Th... more

Dial M for Murder (1954) 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 (1916-2002). Dial M for Murder premiered in 1952 as a BBC television play, before being performed on the stage in the same year (West End in June, and then Broadway in October). 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 (1966), which was filmed a year later. He also wrote a lesser-known play, Write Me a Murder (1961), which ran for 196 performances at Belasco Theater. Knott's work tends to focus on women who innocently become the potential victims of sinister plots. There is just one setting in the stage play of Dial M for Murder: the living-room of the Wendices' flat in London (61A Charrington Gardens, Maida Vale). Hitchcock's film adds... less