MovieChat Forums > Dial M for Murder (1954) Discussion > Beautiful, But Can Not Act

Beautiful, But Can Not Act


I usually cringe whenever I see Grace Kelly act. She's stunningly beautiful, but such an awful actress....truly. In this film, her accent is so fake. And, she just vascillated from being completely vapid and devoid of expression to over-emoting. Hard to watch.

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Beautiful but can't act. The saga goes on.

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She does seem to have a limited range. Interesting to see her in a vehicle that also featured Kathryn Hepburn--"The Philadelphia Story" and it's musical adaptation "High Society". Grace Kelly has an extremely limited range compared to Hepburn. But within that limited range, she did OK for herself. Most films don't call for the same level of intensity that Hepburn brings to acting; and certainly Grace Kelly was never asked to act beyond her range.

And in the last scenes where she expects to be hanged any day--she is sufficiently distant and disembodied as expected of someone about to be hanged. Disembodied and distant best describes her acting ability.

(By the by, people get 'hanged' things get 'hung'...)

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I don't think she is that bad. I'm not saying she is Geraldine Paige. For what she does she is alright.

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Yeah she was okay, but maybe she performs better when she's on her back. 


Stop using sex as a weapon.

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That reminds me of the Belle & Sebastian song Stars Of Track And Field
"She never needed anyone to get her round the track
But when she's on her back
She had the knowledge
To get her into college".

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Her accent is only "fake" in that that was the real Grace Kelly. Like Audrey Hepburn, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and many other upwardly aspiring young women of her day she was elocuted to make her sound upper crust so she could make a good marriage. And it worked in her case -- Ever heard of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco?

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So bad she won an Oscar for the Country Girl eh ?

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Yes I think she was a great actress; IMHO High Society sucked all the way around and Kelly was certainly not the worst culprit. Her performance here was more than adequate, she was very sympathetic and she was terrific in To Catch A Thief and The Swan.

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