I love this movie. Every time it comes on TCM and I’m home, I watch it. Mr. Wendice is just so cool in this flick. I don’t mean cool as in nifty, I mean cool as in unflappable.
One of my favorite lines form this flick takes place when Wendice is convincing Swan to murder his wife. Wendice discovers Swan is little more than a confidence man and has gathered enough information on him to effectively blackmail him into carrying out Wendice’s request. Swan asks Wendice what’s to prevent him from going to the authorities and reporting their conversation and Wendice paints a picture that pits his word (an upstanding member of the community) against Swan’s (a veritable thief). Swan says to Wendice, “Aren’t you smart?” Wendice, unfazed, replies, “Not really, I’ve just had time to work things through.” Classic line.
The only bad thing about this movie is I watched A Perfect Murder a year before I saw Dial M for Murder and it gave away the ending!