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Article: A Perfect Murder.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- July 20, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Alfred Hitchcock may not have been in top form in Dial M for Murder; even so, Frederick Knott's adaptation of his stage thriller moved along with elegance and panache, at least from Ray Milland and John Williams, and cool beauty from Grace Kelly. "Drawing-room murder with cold, literate, gentlemanly skulduggery," Pauline Kael called it. The new, very loose adaptation of it, directed by the able Andrew Davis, is somewhat less cold, and a lot less gentlemanly and literate. It is written by Patrick Smith Kelly, whose previous experience consists of studying business at the University of Colorado and doing six years' worth of stand-up comedy in New York City. The film is ...