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PatrickSmith Kelly gave us a razor's-edge script which updated andre-tailored the material."
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And in particular, we changed the roleof the lover to make him a more active part of the story. We attempted toopen up the story to move it away from being what we thought was acontained stage production. Mankiewicz continues, "We brought on screenwriter Patrick Kelly todevelop a story that would embrace the classic thriller elements ofKnott's play and Hitchcock's adaptation, and at the same timecontemporize the characters and their environment. As soon as I saw it, I knew that we could make aprovocative contemporary version of this story that people would wantto see."
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A really good story is full of potential, and this isa first-rate story &endash full of glamour, dramatic tension,interesting characters, unexpected plot twists and suspensefulthrills.
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When he learned that Christopher Mankiewicz was already involved inthe project, he teamed with Mankiewicz to continue bringing a newversion of the movie to fruition.Įxplains Kopelson, "There's an old adage about there only beingabout two dozen stories in the world and they're told and re-told inevery culture. I thought that with itsthemes of greed, jealousy and intrigue, the bones of the story wereremarkably contemporary and we could bring the rest of the elementsinto the '90s and have a very exciting new movie."Īt about the same time, producer Arnold Kopelson had viewed alaser disc of 'Dial M for Murder' and decided, with his producingpartner and wife, Anne Kopelson, that he wanted to remake the film. Says Mankiewicz, "I had always loved 'Dial M For Murder,' butfelt that it contained untapped potential. These were the themes that interested Christopher Mankiewicz, anindependent producer who was developing several projects at WarnerBros. Indeed, the film does not rely upon keeping the audience in thedark about the often-sinister goings-on within.rather, it lets themin on the lethal mischief step by step, as the story weaves anot-so-straight path through the twisted corridors of love, passion,deception, sexual jealousy and murder. Nevertheless, like John Williams in the Hitchcock film, Suchet commits the film's only believable crime: He steals the show."This film is not a who done it," says "A Perfect Murder" castmember David Suchet, "it's a how done it." The story's most compelling character, an Arab American detective (the superb British actor David Suchet), becomes a minor player here. We don't care about her husband or lover either. The trouble is, we don't really much care about this philandering billionaire glamour puss, who seems perfectly capable of taking care of herself. wholly unaware that murder is in the offing. Then the phone rings chirps, rather and she rises all wet and slippery to answer it. She lies there, sighs there, naked, vulnerable. To soothe her nerves and sort out her feelings, she decides to draw a bath, slip into the tub and steep. In any case, she finds herself caught up in a murderous love triangle of which she knows naught. Clearly chin dimples do for Paltrow what wattles do for that lawyer on "Ally McBeal." Otherwise, it's rather hard to see what the sophisticated young heiress finds in either of these poops.
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Paltrow is in love with Mortensen's starving artist, but she is already married to Michael Douglas's controlling master of the universe. They've also substituted sizzle for suspense, beginning with a sheet-shaking opening scene between Gwyneth Paltrow and Viggo Mortensen in the roles more chastely rendered by Grace Kelly and Bob Cummings. Old-fashioned rotary phones are inherently more suspenseful than mobile ones, and the fear in the victim's eyes is more immediate in the moment than replayed on an answering machine.ĭavis and comedian-cum-screenwriter Patrick Smith Kelly follow the basic premise of Knott's original, but have added new twists and revamped the characters in keeping with the times and the new technology. But the chatty chestnut, which mostly takes place in a British drawing room, is certainly more entertaining than Davis's posh, party-hopping update. Gwyneth Paltrow and Michael Douglas star in "A Perfect Murder."ĭialing M for Murder just isn't the same with a cell phone, as director Andrew Davis discovers in "A Perfect Murder," his uninvolving touch-tone remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 thriller.Īn adaptation of Frederick Knott's hit play, "Dial M" wasn't one of Hitchcock's best efforts.