Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams. Both the screenplay and the successful stage play on which it was based were written by English playwright Frederick Knott. The play premiered in 1952 on BBC Television, before being performed on stage in the same year in London's West End in June, and then New York's Broadway in October.
George Lloyd Murphy was an American actor and politician. Murphy was a song-and-dance leading man in many big-budget Hollywood musicals from 1930 to 1952. He was the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1944 to 1946, and was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1951. Murphy served from 1965 to 1971 as U.S. Senator from California, the first notable American actor to be elected to statewide office in California, predating Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who each served two terms as governor. He is the only United States Senator represented by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
John Hodiak was an American actor who worked in radio, stage and film.
The Big Clock is a 1948 American thriller directed by John Farrow and adapted by novelist-screenwriter Jonathan Latimer from the 1946 novel of the same title by Kenneth Fearing.
Somewhere in the Night is a 1946 American film noir psychological thriller film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, written by Mankiewicz with Howard Dimsdale and Lee Strasberg based on a short story by Marvin Borowsky. It stars John Hodiak, Nancy Guild, Lloyd Nolan and Richard Conte.
Nobody Lives Forever is a 1946 American crime film noir directed by Jean Negulesco and based on the novel I Wasn't Born Yesterday by W. R. Burnett. It stars John Garfield and Geraldine Fitzgerald and features Walter Brennan, Faye Emerson, George Coulouris and George Tobias.
Geraldine Brooks was an American actress whose three-decade career on stage as well as in films and on television was noted with nominations for an Emmy in 1962 and a Tony in 1970. She was married to author Budd Schulberg.
Mary Frances Gifford was an American actress who played leads and supporting roles in many 1930s and 1940s movies.
Out of the Fog is a 1941 American film noir crime drama directed by Anatole Litvak, starring John Garfield, Ida Lupino and Thomas Mitchell. The film was based on the play The Gentle People by Irwin Shaw.
The October Man is a 1947 mystery film/film noir starring John Mills and Joan Greenwood, written by novelist Eric Ambler, who also produced. A man is suspected of murder, and the lingering effects of a brain injury he sustained in an earlier accident, as well as an intensive police investigation, make him begin to doubt whether he is innocent.
Step Lively is a 1944 American musical film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Frank Sinatra. Step Lively was based on the 1937 play Room Service, by Allen Boretz and John Murray. It was a remake of the 1938 RKO film Room Service, starring the Marx Brothers, Lucille Ball, and Ann Miller.
The Vicious Circle is a 1957 British thriller film directed by Gerald Thomas and starring John Mills, Noelle Middleton, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Lionel Jeffries. The screenplay concerns a leading Harley Street specialist who is forced to work with the police to nail a gang of international criminals, after being falsely accused of murder. It was based on My Friend Charles (1956), a TV serial written by Francis Durbridge.
Love from a Stranger is a 1947 American historical film noir directed by Richard Whorf and starring John Hodiak, Sylvia Sidney and Ann Richards. The film is also known as A Stranger Walked In in the United Kingdom. It is based on the play of the same title by Frank Vosper, inspired by a short story by Agatha Christie, which had previously been turned into a 1937 British film Love from a Stranger starring Basil Rathbone.
A Bullet for Joey is a 1955 film noir directed by Lewis Allen and starring Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. The picture involves a gangster who sneaks into Canada to kidnap a scientist for the communists. The supporting cast features Audrey Totter, Peter van Eyck, George Dolenz, and Peter Hansen.
The Long Dark Hall is a 1951 British mystery, suspense, courtroom-drama, crime film directed by Reginald Beck and Anthony Bushell and starring Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer and Raymond Huntley. It was based on the 1947 novel A Case to Answer by Edgar Lustgarten. It was made at Walton Studios.
Blaze of Noon is a 1947 aviation adventure film directed by John Farrow and based on writer and aviator Ernest K. Gann's best-selling novel Blaze of Noon (1946), a story about early air mail operations. The screenplay was from well-known writer and aviator Frank "Spig" Wead and Arthur Sheekman and starred Anne Baxter, William Holden, Sonny Tufts and William Bendix.
Take One False Step is a 1949 American film noir crime film directed by Chester Erskine and starring William Powell, Shelley Winters and Marsha Hunt. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures.
Night Into Morning is a 1951 American drama film directed by Fletcher Markle and starring Ray Milland, John Hodiak and Nancy Davis.
The Trunk is a low budget, black and white 1961 British mystery film directed by Donovan Winter and starring Phil Carey, Julia Arnall and Dermot Walsh.
Anne Baxter (1923–1985) was an American actress who had an extensive career in film, television, and on stage. She made her acting debut at the age of 13 on stage in the Broadway play Seen, But Not Heard in 1936. Four years later, Baxter starred in her first feature film, the western 20 Mule Team (1940). She appeared in Orson Welles' period drama The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), with Joseph Cotten and Dolores Costello, and followed this with a lead role in Billy Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo (1943). In 1946, she starred as a young woman suffering from alcoholism in the drama The Razor's Edge, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Two years later, Baxter appeared with Gregory Peck in the western Yellow Sky.
