![]() ![]() Margot is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. As Tony intends, Hubbard does not believe the story and arrests Margot after concluding that she killed Swann for blackmailing her. When Hubbard says the evidence indicates that Swann entered through the front door, Tony claims that Swann must have been responsible for stealing Margot's handbag, and made a copy of her key. Chief Inspector Hubbard arrives and questions the Wendices and Margot makes several conflicting statements. The next day Tony persuades Margot to hide the fact that he told her not to call the police. He also attempts to frame Margot by planting Mark's letter on Swann and destroying Swann's scarf. He returns home, calls the police, sends Margot to bed, and transfers what he thinks is Margot's key from Swann's pocket into her handbag. Upon hearing Margot plead for help instead of Swann's whistle, Tony advises her not to speak to anyone. When Margot comes to the phone, Swann tries to strangle her with his scarf, but she fatally stabs him with scissors. The following night, Swann enters the flat and Tony calls as planned. Swann will then whistle over the phone to signal the job is done, leave signs of a burglary gone wrong, and replace the key under the foyer carpet when he departs. Minutes later, Tony will telephone the flat from the party and Swann will kill Margot when she answers the call. At a specific time when Margot is certain to be in bed, Swann will enter the flat using Margot's latchkey, which Tony will stash under the foyer carpet, and hide. Tony and Mark will attend a party while Margot stays home alone. With the added inducement of £1,000 in cash, Swann agrees to the murder and Tony explains his plan. After tricking Swann into leaving his fingerprints on the letter, Tony entraps him, threatening to turn him in as Margot's blackmailer unless he kills Margot. ![]() Tony also confides that six months previously, he stole Margot's handbag, which contained a love letter from Mark, and anonymously blackmailed her. Tony invites Swann to his Maida Vale flat on a pretext, and tells him of Margot's affair. Tony is also aware that Charles Swann, an old acquaintance from Cambridge University, is a small-time con man with a criminal record. Unbeknownst to them, Tony is aware of the affair and plans to kill Margot to inherit her fortune, fearing a divorce would leave him penniless. In the mid-1950s, Tony Wendice, a retired English professional tennis player, is married to wealthy socialite Margot, who has been having an affair with American crime-fiction writer Mark Halliday. The adaptation has enjoyed many productions since its premiere. ![]() That and other changes garnered critical praise. Hatcher kept the original setting - London, 1950s - but changed the character of ‘Max Halliday’ to ‘Maxine Hadley,’ making the love affair with Margot a lesbian one. In 2022, a new adaptation of DIAL M FOR MURDER written by Jeffrey Hatcher and approved by the Knott estate opened at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, CA. The film earned an estimated $2.7 million in North American box office sales in 1954. Originally intended to be shown in dual-strip polarized 3-D, the film played in most theatres in ordinary 2-D due to the loss of interest in the 3-D process (the projection of which was difficult and error-prone) by the time of its release. The play premiered in 1952 on BBC Television, before being performed on stage in the same year in London's West End in June, and then New York's Broadway in October. Both the screenplay and the successful stage play on which it was based were written by English playwright Frederick Knott. Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams. ![]()
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