Dial M for Murder (1954 Alfred Hitchcock)

Hitch's most static film - or is it? For the main part shot from low down, lower than Ozu. Then has great scenes - long explanation of planned crime - all from way up high. Mr Scorsese is a fan of these different positions, best exemplified in the scene in which Grace Kelly sets herself up and both her and the reverse shot of John Williams and Ray Milland are shot straight on.

Frederick Knott's ingenious play has been adapted by the author. Milland is funny when he's being unsympathetic - when Kelly says she's been attacked by a strange man his initial question (hopefully) is "Did he get away?"

Typical of Hitchcock the athlete to be dabbling in 3D - end effect of this though is there are too many obtrusive lamps.

Loved the trial scene - shot completely abstractly against coloured backgrounds.

...this is one of the pictures  I see over and over again...Basically it's a dialogue picture, but the cutting, the rhythm, and the direction of the players are so polished that one listens to each sentence religiously. It isn't all that easy to command the audience's undivided attention for a continuous dialogue. I suspect that here again the real achievement is that something very difficult has been carried out in a way that makes it seem very easy. (Truffaut: Hitchcock.)

I think this is partly down to the easy-seeming, casual way in which Milland acts out his lines.

Shot by Robert Burks (is the terrible back projection some complication over 3D?) with score by Dmitri Tiomkin. Robert Cummings is the crime writer who slowly pieces it together. Is it John Williams' best film?