“Dial M for Murder” to “Dinner at Eight”
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Dial M for Murder (1954) Hitchcock at his most playful and entertaining. A slick, if slightly stagy adaptation of Frederick Knott’s suspense thriller featuring terrific performances by Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and especially the excellent John Williams. (KT)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) Despite the fact that it features a different Bond, Diamonds and Live and Let Die feel like part one and two of the same movie (same director and writer Guy Hamilton and Tom Mankiewicz and, for a certain age group giving Europeans their first image of America as a giant sleazy funfair full of supervillains, hip jive-talking gangsters and beautiful women). Connery is terrific in his final two hours in the role and Charles Gray is a dryly wondrous Blofeld. “I’m Plenty.” “Of course you are!” Dirty. And funny. And the car chases are epic. (KT)
Die Hard (1988) The epitome of the perfect action film. Relentless action sequences, a star-making performance from Bruce Willis and the wonderful Alan Rickman as the crafty bad guy. Über rewatchability. (GS)
Diggstown (1992) Ex-con James Woods, teams up with boxer Louis Gossett Jr. and grifter in-training Oliver Platt to swindle a despicable big cheese (Bruce Dern) in a small Georgia town. Woods and Gossett have tremendous chemistry in this underappreciated gem. (GS)
Dinner at Eight (1933) The Barrymore Brothers didnt do much on screen together, much less comedy. There are more major stars in this George Cukor satire of society than almost possible, and its funny! (KWR)
Originally published in Raspberry World – Volume 2, Issue 1 (June/July 2007)