#48: DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never

BEST SEQUENCE

Tony's entrapment and coercion of Charles, and his explanation of the perfect murder he's planned out. The attempt to perpetrate this crime is also very effective, tense and thrilling. So, basically, I'll just say the whole first half of the movie

BEST LINE

None worth mentioning

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

90%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Dial M for Murder may be slightly off-peak Hitchcock, but by any other standard, it's a sophisticated, chillingly sinister thriller -- and one that boasts an unforgettable performance from Grace Kelly to boot."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A former tennis star arranges the murder of his adulterous wife."

DIRECTOR

Alfred Hitchcock

MAIN CAST

Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams (no, not that John Williams), Anthony Dawson

THOUGHTS

• The whole movie is good, but the first hour is really terrifically entertaining, and I loved Ray Milland's performance as Tony - smug and cocksure when he thinks he's planned the perfect murder, then a little more frazzled but still sly and devious when things start to unravel. I was impressed by how intriguing it was to hear Tony's description of his plan - barely any action on screen, just a man describing the act of violence that he wants to transpire. Then when that violence does happen, it's suspenseful and gripping. The first half of the movie also reminded me of Gaslight, another movie I really liked
• The second half shifts gears a bit, turning into more of a detective story, a la Knives Out. Still good, and it's fun to watch the pieces fall into place and the facts get revealed, just not many thrills to be found
• And actually, that's about all I have to say about Dial M for Murder! Before we go, though, I think it's worth taking a moment to admire Grace Kelly's career. She's another actress I didn't expect to see so often in these movies, but she'll be appearing two more times - High Noon at #20 and Rear Window at #14 (also directed by Hitchcock). Her film career lasted only five years - her first movie was in 1951, and her final movie was in 1956. In that short span of time she appeared in eleven movies, five of which were released in 1954 (including Dial M for Murder), and she was nominated for two Oscars, winning one as Best Actress for The Country Girl. And what was the reason for her incredible film career to only last for five years, you ask? Why, she became a princess, of course! She retired from acting to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Now, this might sound like a staggering list of achievements, enough to put most of us to shame. But...did she have a movie blog? I didn't think so

Up next: Just like when I reviewed both The Thing From Another World and John Carpenter's The Thing, the next movie on the AFI list is the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1956 which was followed by a subsequent adaptation in 1978, neither of which I've seen. So, I'm going to review both, starting with the original

#49: BEN-HUR (1959)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never

BEST SEQUENCE

Chariot race, no question, nothing else even comes close

BEST LINE

"Ben-Hur, done that"

- Just kidding. But actually, there were no lines that I thought worth mentioning from the movie, so instead you get this bon mot, courtesy of my wife

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

87%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Uneven, but in terms of epic scope and grand spectacle, Ben-Hur still ranks among Hollywood's finest examples of pure entertainment."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, but it's not long before he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge."

DIRECTOR

William Wyler

MAIN CAST

Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Hugh Griffith

THOUGHTS

• The chariot race is truly incredible. I knew it was considered one of the greatest action sequences of all time, but I was still prepared to be a little underwhelmed, given its age. Upon seeing it, however, I wholeheartedly agree, it really is one of the best action sequences I've ever seen. The action is dynamic and gripping, the camerawork is stunning, and it combines two things I've praised in the past - practical effects and car stunts (or, at least, the 1st-century version of car stunts)
• At the time the chariot race alone cost 1 million dollars to film, which would be the equivalent of 10.6 million today. I also must acknowledge, I was somewhat biased against this movie because I thought it was the one that had multiple horses die during its making, but I was wrong - that would be the silent version of Ben-Hur that was released in 1925. As far as I can tell, no horses were hurt during the making of the 1959 Ben-Hur
• So if you haven't seen Ben-Hur's chariot race, I do highly recommend it, even if you don't care to watch the rest of the movie. I mention this also because, to put it bluntly, the rest of the movie is boring as shit
• Admittedly, I'm being deliberately flippant here. There's some entertainment to be found in the scale and grandiosity inherent to so many movies of this type, and there are a few other memorable moments, including the scenes set on a Roman ship where Ben-Hur was enslaved as a rower, as well as a naval battle that was pretty unlike anything I'd ever seen before. But the vast majority of the movie outside of the chariot race was really not interesting to me, to the point that I wonder if I'm being overly generous giving Ben-Hur a 5/10 considering the chariot race takes up about 10 minutes of a 212-minute movie. Take that as one last indication of how great I thought that sequence was
• Going into it I knew that this was a religious movie of some sort - the book it's based on is subtitled A Tale of the Christ. I didn't really know how Jesus would factor into the story, though. Turns out Ben-Hur and Jesus were going down adjacent paths, only intersecting at a few key moments, and the movie is bookended by Jesus's birth and death. And while I found it a little jarring when the movie shifted focus to Jesus's crucifixion, its depiction was undeniably effective, even for an atheist like me  
• Finally, Ben-Hur set a record at the Oscars in 1960, winning 11. This number has never been beaten and it wasn't even tied until Titanic in 1998 (and then tied again by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004). Ben-Hur's Oscars included a Best Actor win for Charlton Heston, and I do believe this will be the last Heston movie we'll be talking about after he showed up in Touch of Evil and Planet of the Apes. When I reviewed Touch of Evil I commented on the fact that Heston was playing a Mexican character, but I think it's also fair to mention that at the time of Touch of Evil and Ben-Hur Heston was a staunch Democrat and advocate for civil rights (as was Orson Welles, the director of Touch of Evil). All of this may be surprising given Heston's political views later in life. Also surprising - the egregious brownface used on actor Hugh Griffith in Ben-Hur, a Welsh actor playing a character named Sheik Ilderim, and also a performance that won Best Supporting Actor (somewhat inexplicably, in my opinion; aside from the brownface it wasn't even that memorable a role or performance and not terribly significant to the movie as a whole)

Up next: It's been a while since the last Hitchcock movie, Rebecca at #80, but he's back with Dial M for Murder

#50: MARATHON MAN (1976)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

6.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, I think in high school. Incidentally, if it seems like I saw a lot of these movies for the first time in high school, this very list that we're reviewing was unveiled in June of 2001 when I was in grade 9. There was a TV special counting down the list, hosted by Harrison Ford, and I watched the hell out of that special, and it definitely led to a lot of my movie picks over the next few years

BEST SEQUENCE

The interrogation scene

BEST LINE

"Is it safe?"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

82%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Marathon Man runs the gamut from patient mystery to pulse-pounding thriller, aided by Laurence Olivier's coldly terrifying performance and a brainy script by William Goldman."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"After the murder of his older brother, a New York history student is hounded by shadowy government agents on the trail of a Nazi war criminal who is trying to retrieve smuggled diamonds."

DIRECTOR

John Schlesinger

MAIN CAST

Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, Marthe Keller, William Devane 

THOUGHTS

• There are some movies on this list that have clearly been chosen for one indelible segment, and in my opinion Marathon Man is one such movie. Best remembered for its interrogation scene mentioned above, the sequence is incredibly effective and squirm-inducing even if it's not really all that graphic or violent
• In fact, I usually try not to give too much away in these reviews just in case you get the urge to watch the whole movie, but this time I think it's worth watching just the interrogation sequence alone. All you need to know is that Laurence Olivier is trying to get information out of Dustin Hoffman, and Hoffman has no idea what he's asking about; in fact, he doesn't even really understand the question. Content warning: dental trauma (and if you do decide to watch this clip but don't want the rest of the movie to be spoiled, stop at 6:35)
• And I can't stand going to the dentist even when I'm NOT being tortured!
• Outside of this standout sequence, the rest of the movie is still pretty good if a little more forgettable. The performances are effective, and there are even some other noteworthy scenes - the part where Olivier's ex-Nazi, Christian Szell, gets recognized on the street by Holocaust survivors is worth mentioning, and there's also a part where Roy Scheider kills a guy by putting his knee on the guy's back, grabbing him by the chin, and breaking his spine - extremely visceral, and something I remembered even from my first viewing
• I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't mention a fairly famous behind-the-scenes story from the making of Marathon Man. Dustin Hoffman was a method actor, and, so the story goes, he had stayed awake for two days before shooting scenes where his character had not slept for 72 hours. Upon hearing this, Olivier was quoted as saying to him, "My dear boy, why don't you just try acting?" Now, there are conflicting reports about how contentious this was intended to be, or if this was actually due to Hoffman's acting method or just his personal life at the time, but still - the zing goes to Olivier
• Finally, I recently ran my first marathon, and I decided that this would be the perfect movie to watch the next day, despite already remembering that there's actually fairly little about marathon running in the movie. Dustin Hoffman's character, Babe, is a marathon runner, the titular marathon man (and side note, Babe is a nickname, presumably coming from the character's middle name of Babington, but man, it's still kind of silly every time we hear him referred to as such). When Hoffman is being pursued by bad guys he certainly does do some high-stress running, but I think this character trait was mostly deemed important to explain how he can put up with all the pain he goes through. As Babe says, "Well, I'm a marathon runner. When you race 26 miles, you don't give in to pain. It hurts, but I don't pay any attention." 

Up next: A new one for me, and a long one, to boot - at 3 hours and 32 minutes it's the longest movie I've reviewed so far (but it will eventually be bested by Lawrence of Arabia's 3 hours and 42 minutes). From 1959, it's Ben-Hur