“Dial M” (For) Notes

In watching the great Alfred Hitchcock directed and produced 1954 film, “Dial M For Murder,” yet again, I add some notes, as I am wont to do.

First and foremost, I deem the film as great,  truly worthy of being cited in a ” Greatest Sports Legends” episode about Willie Mays.

I believe that episode opened with and certainly included– “1954 the year of Dien Bien Phu, Brown vs Board of Education, Dial M for Murder and Willie Mays.” 

Next, a stretch, but 1954 in sports had a 7th game/NHL final overtime goal scored by Detroit’s (Red Wings) Tony Leswick. In “Dial M,” one of the character Swan’s (played so effectively, by the less publicized Anthony Dawson) aliases is Lesgate (pronounced Lesgit, I believe), which is close to Leswick.

Another “stretch” is that top billed Ray Milland’s “Tony Wendice” character has used the name “Fisher” in drawing Dawson’s Swan into a meeting.

After suffering two painful 7th game, final round defeats at Detroit in ’54 and ’55, the Montreal Canadiens won an incredible 5 straight Stanley Cup crowns. The dynasty (that word pronounced “Dinisty” on a PBS show about Henry the Eighth and the eventual Tudor Dynasty in England, that I scanned last night) began in the first full season, a great hockey writer named Red Fisher,  reported about the Montreal Canadiens.

Finally in the great film, John Williams, so good as ” Chief Inspector Hubbard,” calls instructions to a “Williams” on his staff, as part of the climactic scene.

Frederick Knott wrote both the play and screenplay for the high quality and successful, “dial M for Murder.”