Today is National Hitchcock Day! To be honest I just found out about this "holiday" today but I'm a big Hitchcock fan so I thought I'd throw up a quick post especially since I've been really busy and haven't posted anything for a while. I don't think I can say anything about Hitchcock that hasn't already been said so I just though I'd share a recent experience with one of his films I quite enjoyed.
I took a short trip to the Seattle, WA area over spring break to visit a good friend of mine and one of the places I had to stop by was the Seattle International Film Festival cinemas. They have terrific programming such and I was fortunate enough to catch a screening of Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder. I consider it a treat to watch any classic film on the big screen and there was no way I was going to miss seeing one of Hitchcock's classic films. Hitchcock was fairly prolific and so there are many of his films that I have yet to see and Dial M for Murder was one of them. One thing I didn't know about the film was that it was shot in 3D and was originally planned to be released in dual strip polarized 3D during the 3D boom of the 50's. However, by the time the film was to be released the 3D craze had died down and the film was mainly release in 2D. The SIFF Cinema Uptown's screening of Dial M for Murder was in fact in 3D. I knew this was a rare opportunity.
The film a classic mystery with a very simple set-up. The film stars Ray Milland as Tony Wendice, a man who has discovered that his wife Margot(a stunning Grace Kelly) has been cheating on him and decides to take his revenge. He devises what he believes to be the perfect crime and blackmails a man into killing her. Of course, the plan fails spectacularly and the would be murderer ends up dead. The film then follows the aftermath of the botched plan as we wait and see whether or not the truth will be uncovered.
The film is based on a play and therefore is a very small movie taking place in mainly one location. Hitchcock's direction is relatively subdued here and he's content to let the actors and the sharp screenplay shine. It starts a little slow and to be honest after a long day of walking and exploring Seattle the opening minutes made a little sleepy. However, once once the main plot began I was enthralled. The film is quite fun and very well constructed. It has great performances and wicked dialogue as the characters try to glean information from one another or hide it depending on their motives. As for the 3D, I actually enjoyed it. The people at the SIFF Cinema Uptown really know what they're doing and so there were no issues with the movie being too dark with the glasses on. This allowed the 3D to serve the film very well. Given the film's origins as a stage play the 3D lent itself well to the minimal locations and gave the film a live theater quality that I really enjoyed.
The film totally holds up and like I said is a lot of fun. It was recently released on Blu-Ray 3D and while I haven't checked out that version I definitely recommend it for fans of the mystery genre. You could do much worse with a couple hours of your time. Lastly, if you're a fan of movies and find yourself in the Seattle area with some time to spare you should definitely check out the SIFF cinemas. I was only able to catch one film at the Uptown and while it's a bit pricey, especially the concessions, I understand that their programming must be expensive to acquire and that they serve a fairly small audience. With that in mind in mind experiences like this one or for example seeing new and restored film prints of classic Studio Ghibli films, is certainly worth the money.
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