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.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As Wendice walks out the front door after trying unsuccessfully to get into his flat, Hubbard describes to Margot and Mark what he's doing. Wendice at first gives up on why his key doesn't work and is shown turning away from the entrance and starting to walk off. The camera then cuts to Hubbard, who says, "It's no good, he's going away down the street." But then Hubbard says "Oh, just a minute", and as the camera cuts back to Wendice he's barely moved. Given the time that has elapsed while Hubbard was speaking, Wendice should be several feet away by then.
  
  
• Plot holes: When Swann arrives at Wendice's flat, Wendice tells him they went to the same college but that Swann wouldn't recognize him because he (Wendice) had only arrived in Swann's last year. But immediately afterward Wendice takes the reunion dinner photo from his wall, showing Swann sitting right beside Wendice. Leaving aside the matter of why Swann and Wendice would be attending the same reunion since they had graduated years apart, Swann never contradicts Wendice's assertion that they hadn't seen one another in the 20 years since college.
  
  
• Plot holes: After the trial, Chief Inspector Hubbard visits Tony to execute a complicated ruse that he had prearranged with Sergeant O'Brian (at the station) and Detective Williams (stationed upstairs). The ruse relies on the inspector mentioning Margot's handbag and switching raincoats with Tony. The inspector would have left the apartment without doing either of those things had it not been for Mark being present and calling out to the inspector, but the inspector would not have expected Mark to be in the apartment.
  
  

• 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.
  
  
• Plot holes: SPOILER: When Wendice calls the police to report Swann's murder, the police sergeant tells him they'll be there in two minutes. Wendice then makes Margot go back to bed and begins arranging the crime scene to implicate her - all of which takes a great deal longer than the two minutes before the police were due to arrive.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: From the position in which she was being forced flat on the desk while Swann was strangling her, Margot could not possibly have stabbed him in the back as far down, and at such a deep angle, as she is supposed to have done.
  
  

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