Have You Seen .... ? by David Thomson: Death in Venice, Dial M for Murder and Strangers on a Train

No, I had never seen Death in Venice before. The acclaimed 1971 film from Luchino Visconti is adapted from the novella by Thomas Mann and stars Dirk Bogarde as the  classical composer Gustav von Achenbach. Set in 1912, we first see his arrival in Venice in the breaking dawn. The cinematography is superb throughout. Venice looks great and so does the hotel where the elderly Gustav makes his last home. His room overlooks the beach. However, there is very little story, a scene on the beach might look fabulous with all the ladies under umbrellas, but it is far too long with no dialogue. Even a long scene at the barbers where Gustav is made up is only saved by the music. Gustav Mahler's 3rd and 5th Symphonies take pride of place. 

But Gustav is not well, actually he's sometimes in agony. Bogarde is superb in what is maybe his greatest performance. He is well known at the hotel and finds solace in it's visitors. The costumes, scenery and design are all marvellous. Shame there is hardly any story. So if you want to look at a painting and hear the music, this might be for you. But David Thomson calls it "a very bad film" and "the sacrifice of storytelling ..... but it does have many admirers".

Dial M for Murder is an Alfred Hitchcock classic from 1954, notable for Grace Kelly at her luminous best. You can see why he wanted her for his next, and better, movie Rear Window. Ray Milland is great as the villainous husband hiring a mug as a hitman. There are surprises in store. English writer Frederick Knott has adapted his own stage play. David Thomson says that it is "very stagey" and that "everything takes place on one set".

I had never see this other 1951 Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train. Originally a Patricia Highsmith idea where two men on a train talk about murdering each other's target. The first murder sees the awful Robert Walker following Harley Granger's wife through a fairground. She sees her pursuer a number of times but does not tell the two men who accompany her. Why does he revel in her seeing him. He has a twisted mind. All the way through we have a really tense movie with some very Hitchcockian moments. In the opening scene at the train station we only see the men from the waist down. And the cigarette lighter is the McGuffin. Thomson thinks that it is "only half a film, with a good deal of padding".