(1954) Given only a limited 3-D release upon its opening, Hitchcock’s Dial M is rarely seen in its original double-system NaturalVision form: two projectors synchronized to give maximum brightness, color and depth. (A 3-D reissue in the early 80s converted the film to an inferior single-projector process.) Quintessential cool blonde (and Hitchcock favorite) Grace Kelly stars as a society woman for whom jealous husband Ray Milland arranges the perfect murder. But thanks to a well-placed pair of scissors, the tables are turned and Milland’s carefully-laid plans begin to disintegrate. Hitchcock used a rapid 36-day shooting schedule, and was dismissive of 3-D itself (“A nine-day wonder, and I came in on the ninth day”). He refused to open out the hit play by Frederick Knott (author of another masterpiece of unknown terror, Wait Until Dark), confining most of the action to one set, and setting his cameras in a pit to get low-angle shots designed to emphasize depth and to give the film a theatricality and claustrophobia à la Rope and Rear Window. Only on this stage the proscenium doesn’t end at the screen, it extends into the audience! 3-D is most effectively used in the murder sequence, which takes on new and greater significance as the viewer is placed in the midst of the struggle: a voyeuristic accomplice to murder as only Hitchcock could have planned.

A WARNER BROS. RELEASE