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An Argument for Same-sex Marriage: Religious Freedom, Sexual Freedom, and Public Expressions of Civic Equality

Emily R. Gill

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Book

The relationship between religious belief and sexuality as personal attributes exhibits some...

Blackwashing Homophobia: Violence and the Politics of Sexuality, Gender and Race

Melanie Judge

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Book

As lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex identities increasingly secure legal recognition...

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Dial M for Murder (1954) in Movies

Sep 20, 2020

Dial M for Murder (1954)

1954 | Crime, Mystery

7.8

(15 Ratings)

Movie Rating

A mid-tier episode of "Law & Order" from the 50s that's as mildly rousing as it is boring in a nearly 1:1 ratio. Yes the writing is impressively airtight, and always leaves you looking for some sort of holes to no avail - one of those films where you play a fun little guessing game in your head every time a character says or does something. Could they have slipped up? Do the other characters know that? But here's my main problem with this: it's so DRY holy shit. Yes the story is rigorously optimized for this sort of deal, but that's all there is to chew on here - nothing else. The characters in this movie exist only to explain and inform each other about the story as it happens - outside of the first couple scenes there are no little moments of interpersonal interaction between characters that involves anything else besides telling people what just happened, no moments of humor outside of a bad gay joke and a couple telegraphed duds, no personality building beyond how they react in relation to - again - the singular crime narrative. That's virtually every single scene, so it quickly feels like you're just watching the same thing over and over again. This goes straight past staunchly formal and almost into rudimentary, but Grace Kelly and Ray Milland are wonderful enough to carry this very talky one-trick pony along with the sheer attention to detail of the plot. Still definitely fair but way too straightforward, I can't act like dozens of better ones have been done even if this did potentially pave the way for a lot of them.