Goofs for
Dial M for Murder (1954) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: When Tony dials the first phone call in the movie, it's clear from the sound and his finger movements that the fourth digit is smaller than the third, perhaps a 4. But from the immediately following dialogue, the number should be HAMpstead 7899, i.e. 426-7899.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As Margot reaches for the scissors, a bright spot can be glimpsed over Lesgate's shoulders: it's one end of what's meant to be the same scissors, already sticking out of his back.
  
  
• Continuity: During the trial the date of the murder is clearly stated as September 26th, but when looking at Tony's checkbook, Halliday says that March 26th was "the day before all this happened".
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: When Chief Inspector Hubbard uses his penlight to illuminate the telephone dial (and later to show the lock on the apartment door) the area of light is shaped and moves like an off-screen spotlight (which it is).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Margot's press cuttings are clearly blank on one side; cut out of newspapers, they should have printing on both sides.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The inspector makes a phone call from the flat, supposedly in London. We hear a clearly American-accented voice on the other end say "operator". It should have been an English voice, saying (in the 1950s), "Number, please."
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Early in the film, Margot calls Mark (Robert Cummings) "Bob".
  
  
• Continuity: After Margot kills Lesgate, her handbag remains open on the table, making it easy to Tony puts in it the key which he took off the Lesgate's pocket. Then the handbag appears closed between shots.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: The boom mic is reflected in garden doors above Tony's and Inspector Hubbard's heads during the Inspector's first visit.
  
  
• Continuity: While Tony is first meeting with Swann, he holds a cane in front of him while seated. In some shots he rests his chin on top of the cane; in other shots the cane is clearly far too short to reach his chin.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In a shot of the Queen Mary, a part of the wall holding the backdrop is visible.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Margot shows Mark the second blackmail letter, she starts to say her next line before her cue.
  
  
• Continuity: Before Tony and Mark leave for the stag party, Tony walks to the window and closes the curtains while talking to Margot. After they argue over her going out, he walks back to the window, we see the curtains are open, and he closes them again.
  
  
• Continuity: At 24:48, the husband throws a £100 bundle on a pink armchair. The money falls right at the back of the seat. At 31:33, the murderer takes the money. The bundle is now right in front of the armchair.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: (At 41:41) Just before Margot is strangled she answers the phone but there is no one speaking. We clearly HEAR that she is hitting the phone button several times with her hidden hand. As we saw previously that this is not an 'operator' call, this should disconnect. However, the husband keeps talking, and can be heard even before he hits the 'connect' button.
  
  
• Continuity: At 78:47, John Williams lights his pipe. At 80:08 he puts it in his pocket, careless that it is still lighted.
  
  
• Continuity: While Tony is talking to Swan/Lesgate about giving his tennis career up (sitting at the coffee table), he's idly twirling his cane a foot or so below his chin, and in the next shot (cut to side view of him) he's sitting with the cane below his chin with his hands propped upon it.
  
  
• Continuity: When Inspector Hubbard visits Tony after Margot's conviction, he tries out Swann's key, unbeknownst to Tony, then puts the key in his vest pocket. He never leaves the apartment building after this scene, and yet Margot shows up shortly afterward with Swann's key still in her purse (where Tony, thinking it was Margot's key that he was recovering from Swann's pocket, had put it after Swann was killed). There is no explanation of how the key gets from Hubbard's pocket back to Margot's purse, nor is there the explanation that Hubbard made a duplicate of the key in Margot's purse.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: When Margot stabs Lesgate with the scissors, the point of contact appear to be between his shoulder blades. When he collapses on the scissors, they are much further down his back.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: A simple inspector would have absolutely no power to have Margot temporarily released from Prison, especially prior to a death sentence. It would have taken several appeals and even if she was released to help with the investigation, she would have been handcuffed and accompanied constantly by police officers to prevent her escape, and definitely not allowed to wander freely under far-away surveillance.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: When Margot has her breakdown in Mark's arms nearer the end of the film, the carefully set waves at the front of her hair fall out of place and become loose - yet in the next again scene the waves have been completely re-set and smoothed down, something she neither would have had the time to do without curlers and a brush.
  
  

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