Editing Dial M for Murder (section)

==Reception==
"This is a technical triumph that Hitchcock has achieved", wrote [[Bosley Crowther]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' in a favourable review. "It is one for which he needed good actors. He has them—and the best of the lot is John Williams, late of the stage play, who is the detective who solves the sinister ruse."<ref>{{cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |authorlink=Bosley Crowther|date=May 29, 1954 |title='Dial M for Murder' is Shown at Paramount |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1954/05/29/archives/dial-m-for-murder-is-shown-at-paramount.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |page=13}}</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' wrote: "There are a number of basic weaknesses in the set-up that keep the picture from being a good suspense show for any but the most gullible. Via the performances and several suspense tricks expected of Hitchcock, the weaknesses are glossed over to some extent but not enough to rate the film a cinch winner."<ref>{{cite magazine |date=April 28, 1954 |title=Dial M for Murder (3D–Color) |url=https://archive.org/details/variety194-1954-04/page/n205 |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |page=6 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> ''[[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. The chief weakness is that the action is slow, caused by the fact that the story unfolds almost entirely by dialogue."<ref>{{cite journal |date=May 1, 1954 |title='Dial M for Murder' with Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings |journal=[[Harrison's Reports]] |page=71}}</ref>

[[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. It's the work of a master enjoying his script."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Coe |first=Richard L. |date=May 28, 1954 |title=Dial M For Fine Tingles in Spine |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |page=51}}</ref> [[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".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=McCarten |first=John |date=June 5, 1954 |title=The Current Cinema |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |pages=62–63}}</ref> ''[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]]'' wrote that the film "offers the prolific Hitchcock little more than an opportunity to carpenter a neat piece of filmed theatre—an opportunity which perhaps satisfied the master a little more than it does us ... 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."<ref>{{cite journal |date=September 1954 |title=Dial M for Murder |journal=[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]] |volume=21 |issue=248 |page=128}}</ref>

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|90|7.40|50|''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.|ref=y|access-date=February 10, 2024}} {{Metacritic film prose|75|11|access-date=January 21, 2025}}<ref>{{Cite Metacritic |title=Dial M for Murder |id=dial-m-for-murder |type=movie |access-date=January 21, 2025}}</ref> In 2012, ''[[The Guardian]]'' called the film "a taut, acidly funny thriller".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Barnes|first1=Henry|title=My Favourite Hitchcock: Dial M for Murder|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/aug/06/alfred-hitchcock-dial-m-for-murder|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=6 August 2012}}</ref>

The film was listed by [[American Film Institute]] in 2001 in [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills]] (#48),<ref>{{cite web|title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills |url=https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-thrills |website=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=January 15, 2022}}</ref> and in 2008 in [[AFI's 10 Top 10]] (#9 in Mysteries).<ref>{{cite web|title=AFI's 10 Top 10: Top 10 Mystery |url=http://www.afi.com/10top10/category.aspx?cat=5 |website=American Film Institute |date=2016 |access-date=August 22, 2016}}</ref>