Dial M for Murder

Dial M for Murder
Release Date: May 29, 1954
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Actors Include: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams, and Anthony Dawson

I have always enjoyed watching Alfred Hitchcock movies, mostly because they always have a great plot, always suspenseful, not exactly scary, and always just plain old fun. His movies have always gotten me through sick times, winter, summer, spring, fall, Christmas break from school, days off of work, watching his movies before going to bed and also watching a lot of his movies with my Grandpa and my mom. A lot of people know who Alfred Hitchcock is because of Psycho, being his most famous movie and also The Birds. But my favorites are his most not so famous ones. Which include the first Alfred Hitchcock movie I wrote about which is Shadow of a Doubt, and then this one is definitely one of my favorites.

This movie has one heck of a cast. The beautiful Grace Kelly and also Ray Milland are the main stars in this movie, and also includes a man that appears in the most of AH movies and also television series, John Williams. The movie is set, as well as Rope which I also Blogged about earlier, in a apartment in England. Again, you never feel trapped. And you never find yourself sitting during the movie saying "man, we have never left the apartment". Which is a true Alfred Hitchcock experience.

The movie is about a man who is married and a very well known Tennis Star. He finds out that his wife is doing something she shouldn't and he wants nothing but to teach her a lesson, which she will never get to learn. He decides it is best to murder his wife, and he also decides that it should be by someone that he knows has already done a crime in the past, and is also someone he feels he can trust. The movie has a lot of twists and turns and ends on a happy note. It very much keeps you on the edge of your seat.

You can also find the director in this film as well. He is located in a picture the Ray Milland shows us during his discussion on the plot to murder his wife. And one thing you can think about during the movie, is how well the story is written. The fact that most directors take forever in showing you a certain detail of one's character, and it only takes two minutes to figure out what is happening with this story.

Another thing I have always loved about Alfred Hitchcock is the fact that he always has great one liners in his movies. One in Dial M for Murder that always left me with chills is this part where Ray Milland is talking about how he wants his accomplice to leave the scene of the crime:
"...and that is what I shall tell the police"
"yes, but she may say"
"but she isn't going to say anything, will she?"

The one character I have always loved to watch is the detective, which is played by John Williams. He is funny and witty. And also a lot of fun to watch. I hope you watch this movie and enjoy it as much I have. I have probably seen this movie a million times.

Psycho

Psycho
Released Date: August 25, 1960
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Actors: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Janet Leigh, Martin Balsam, and Patricia Hitchcock

This movie is probably one of the scariest movies ever. And by far THE scariest villain to date, Norman Bates. Or Ms. Bates?? Who knows right??

The movie starts off with a woman who is clearly in love but cannot do a thing about it. The man she is in love with is going through a divorce that is costing him a lot of money, and he lives in another town. He is also paying for his late father's bills and can't afford to pay for a little thing called marriage with this woman. I don't want to give anything away, but let's just say she figures out a way to get a hold of a bunch of money that can easily pay the late father's bills, his alimony, and also a marriage. However, her way about having the money is completely wrong and well let's just say karma stinks. She ends up at Bates Motel and the rest, they say is history.

Now Alfred Hitchcock never ended up winning any Oscars, but this movie did end up giving Mr. Hitchcock 4 Oscar nods and this movie is rated 8.7/10 according to IMBD. I would give the movie a 10/10 but of course everyone has different taste. :)

Alfred Hitchcock had a chance to make this movie in color but decided that the movie would benefit in black and white. And he was right. The movie is much more creepier and not to mention that most if not all black and white scary movies are much more creepy than color scary movies. I don't know if it is because of the dark shadows or if it is because Alfred Hitchcock is just that brilliant, but this movie is GRAND. The movie also has the directors daughter in it. Patricia Hitchcock, she was in a few of his movies actually. You can see the proud daughter talk about his movies on all of his movie DVDs.

This movie also has a lot of very great creepy lines such as, "A boys best friend is his mother" said by Norman Bates.

I hope you all watch the movie. It is a very son/mother type of film that will keep your heart racing and will keep you out of hotels and showers for a very long time. Literally, the main actress from this film, Janet Leigh, could not shower after making this film. And she also admitted to having to have her maid stand in the bathroom with her as she showered sometime in 2000 after having broke her leg and the Dr telling her to take showers instead of baths.

It's the great pumpkin Charlie Brown!!!

I love the holidays. Plain and simple. Holidays are fun. Decorations, cookies, sweaters (I like to call my holiday sweaters Bests, for instance Christmas sweater is my Christmas Best :)), family, friends and TV movies. We all wait for the clay-mation Rudolph the Red nose reindeer to come on. And naturally Charlie Brown comes to mind. All of our favorite gang to give us the inside scoop of what the holidays are all about.

My favorite character is Linus. Watch as he waits for the Great Pumpkin in a field of pumpkins while all of his friends and sister are trick or treating. He is literally out there all night till his sister comes out and brings him inside. And hopefully she shares all of her candy with him since he missed out on all the fun of getting the candy. My other favorite Peanut gang member is in the movie too but you never see her, and that would be Peppermint Patty. :)

We all remember the "I'll go ahead and throw that away" candy. The candy we usually threw away though was actually candy. Such as the candy without a rapper, the gum, the no brand named stuff too. Well watch as poor ol' Charlie Brown gets nothing but "bad" candy.

I hope you all get to catch this movie every year like I do. Usually on channel five?? Yup, that's where I see it. Along with all the Christmas movies too.