Dial M for Murder

This article is about a 1954 American film. For the band, see Dial M for Murder! For the episode of Sunday Night Theatre, see Dial M for Murder (Sunday Night Theatre).

Dial M for Murder
Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold
Directed byAlfred Hitchcock
Screenplay byFrederick Knott
Based onDial M for Murder
1952 play
by Frederick Knott
Produced byAlfred Hitchcock
StarringRay Milland
Grace Kelly
Robert Cummings
John Williams
CinematographyRobert Burks
Edited byRudi Fehr
Music byDimitri Tiomkin
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
  • May 18, 1954 (1954-05-18) (Philadelphia)[1]
  • May 29, 1954 (1954-05-29) (US)
Running time
105 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States[2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.4 million
Box office$6 million[3]

Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock,[4] starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams. Both the screenplay and the successful stage play on which it was based were written by English playwright Frederick Knott. The play premiered in 1952 on BBC Television,[5] before being performed on stage in the same year in London's West End in June, and then New York's Broadway in October.

Originally intended to be shown in dual-strip polarized 3-D, the film played in most cinemas in ordinary 2-D owing 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.[6] The film earned an estimated $2.7 million in North American box office sales in 1954.[7]

  1. ^ "Dial M for Murder - Details". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Dial M for Murder (1958)". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on September 4, 2017. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  3. ^ "Box Office Information for Dial M for Murder". The Numbers. April 14, 2012.
  4. ^ "Dial M for Murder (1954)". BFI. Archived from the original on November 3, 2016. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  5. ^ "Dial M for Murder". BBC. March 23, 1952. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
  6. ^ Furmanek, Bob; Kintz, Greg. "An In-Depth Look at DIAL M FOR MURDER". 3-D Film Archive. Archived from the original on May 25, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
  7. ^ "1954 Boxoffice Champs". Variety. January 5, 1955. p. 59. Retrieved April 22, 2019 – via Internet Archive.