Stars : Ray Miland & Grace Kelly
Watch on : Prime Video (on Rent)
Old timers and film buffs from the 1950-60s era would recall the 1954 master-class in suspense “Dial ‘M’ for Murder” with the iconic stars, Ray Miland and Grace Kelly in lead roles in a taut crime-drama that was made in the quintessential Alfred Hitchcock genre. It’s a whodunit without actually being one in the sense that one knows from the start who does it and who is the mastermind is behind the crime.
The real thrill lies in the twists and turns in a complicated plot based on a few premises : that in all such capers, even the best laid plans can go awry, the most ingenious criminal makes at least one mistake and gets caught and that the killer goes back to the scene of the crime for some earthly reason and meets his nemesis, the ace detective (or police).
This original film version had Ray Miland playing the plotting husband, who’d possibly be the most suave villain who hatches the perfect murder plan without batting an eyelid. The vulnerable wife is played by the beautiful Grace Kelly who seems to aware of the danger lurking around her and must gather her wits to save herself. The film’s pace is slow but builds up in suspense as the story unravels leading up to a fascinating climax !
Such a thriller had to be remade by Bollywood with it’s own ingredients and this came in a reasonably decent version called ‘Aitbaar’ in 1985 with Dimple Kapadia, Raj Babbar and Suresh Oberoi, had haunting music and a fine cameo by Danny Denzongpa as the eccentric detective in the Hercule Poirot mould. Yet it was a pale shadow of the original.
We’ve then discovered that Hollywood tried out another remake ‘The Perfect Murder’ in 1998 with Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow in lead roles which we chanced upon on ‘Netflix’ recently. The storyline in the first half has been sincerely borrowed from the original but with its dose of ‘adult’ sense and foul words in keeping with times but the second half is almost rehashed into a violent thriller with blood and gore. Douglas as the desperate, ruthless tycoon who’ll stop at nothing to achieve his ends, is a contrast to the chilling nonchalance of Ray Miland as a diabolical plotter of a murder, in the original !
The upshot of all this remains that classics of any genre shouldn’t be remade – for, as I have coined a ‘film’ phrase myself : ‘No Holiday can be as good as ‘ROMAN HOLIDAY’ !
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