YMMV / Dial M for Murder

• Adaptation Displacement: It was a play first?
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Mark; caring about the woman he loves or trying to get an annoying obstacle out of the way by persuading Tony to take the rap?
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In hindsight, the film seems to be an ancestor to Columbo, as a Reverse Whodunnit cracked by the unorthodox investigative techniques of a crafty police detective (who even does the "just one more thing" routine). So it was only natural for Ray Milland to play the murderer in one episode (where he kills someone named Tony). Even funnier, John Williams, who played the Columbo-prototype Chief Inspector Hubbard, appeared in an episode as the murder victim.
  • In its initial release, the film had an Intermission, which was necessary for the 3-D prints so theaters could do maintenance work on the equipment. Modern prints of the film retain the "intermission" card, but it only runs a few seconds, which unintentionally brings to mind movies like Monty Python and the Holy Grail that use short intermissions as a joke.
• Magnificent Bastard: Tony Wendice discovers his wife Margot's infidelity and concocts a complex plan to kill her for revenge whilst framing her lover for the deed. His scheme disrupted when Margot shows her own tenacity by killing the assassin, Tony almost immediately improvises a new scheme to make her appear as though she committed the murder in cold blood. When Tony's second plot runs the risk of exposing him, he adapts yet again to turn the situation to his advantage. Even when Margot manages to see him exposed through all of his plotting, Tony shows his charm even in loss and as he is arrested graciously pours scotch for everyone who had a hand in catching him, save a police officer whom Tony notes would be reprimanded for drinking on duty.
• Rooting for the Empire: Hitchcock confirmed this as intentional, stating that when Tony is delayed getting to the phone and Swann starts to leave, the audience wants him to hold on long enough to get the call. After all the build-up, it would be disappointing if the plot was foiled too easily.
• Squick: In what was quite a graphic shot for the time, we get a close-up of the scissors being pushed further into Swann's back as he falls on them.

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