Question: Who is in the photograph on the liquor table in the beginning?
Dial M for Murder (1954)
2 questions
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams
Continuity mistake: When Tony throws the 100 pounds down-payment across the room to Swan, watch the chair in which it lands. It has a low back one in one shot, then a high back (probably to provide a bigger target for the throw), then a low back again.
Margot Mary Wendice: Oh, there you are. We thought you were never coming. What have you been up to?
Tony Wendice: I'm sorry darling, but the boss came in just as I was leaving.
Margot Mary Wendice: Tony, this is Mark Halliday.
Tony Wendice: Hello Mark.
Mark Halliday: Hello.
Trivia: Alfred Hitchcock wanted the film to look as natural as possible, with the camera at eye level with the actors. Since movie cameras were large (especially 3D cameras), Hitch had a small trench built into the soundstage floor, so that the camera lens was, roughly, at eye level.
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Chosen answer: It's mostly so the audience can see more of Tony's underlying character. This is Margo's bed, and Tony wanted it separate from the bedroom that they shared as husband and wife. Tony is "emotionally divorcing" himself from Margo as he is about to start a new life as a single man. Leaving the bed in the bedroom would serve as a reminder of his guilt in framing his innocent wife for a murder she did not commit. The bed is likely parked there until he can get rid of it.
raywest ★