DIAL M FOR MURDER

year: 1954  rating: ***

Perhaps it's Alfred Hitchcock's fault. He made his villain so likable that the third act of this classic melodrama becomes a let-down when the somewhat one-dimensional good guys, including a cop and a crime novelist, hone in on the wrathfully delightful Ray Milland...

The always-intense actor deliciously plots a "perfect murder" of his rich wife during a gloriously long scene (with Anthony Dawson) in that sublimely executed second act, thus leading to the pivotal "homocide" that still packs a wallop.

What Hitchcock and his actors do with few locations, and tons of dialogue, is amazing.