A Perfect Murder is a 1998 American crime thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and starring Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Viggo Mortensen. It is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film Dial M for Murder, though the characters' names have been changed and much of the plot has been rewritten and altered from its original form. Loosely based on the play by Frederick Knott, the screenplay was written by Patrick Smith Kelly.^[1]

Wall Street financier Steven Taylor is married to the much younger Emily. When his risky personal investments start unraveling, he intends to access Emily's $100 million fortune to cover his losses. Meanwhile, Emily considers leaving Steven while having an affair with artist David Shaw. Steven arrives at David's studio the next day. He reveals that he knows about the affair and has uncovered David's real identity as Winston Lagrange, an ex-convict who cons rich women. Steven pressures David into murdering Emily for $500,000.

Steven takes Emily's housekey and hides it outside the service entrance to their lavish Manhattan co-op apartment. David is to use the key to enter the apartment, kill her, and make it look like a robbery. At his weekly card game, Steven takes a break and uses his cellphone to make a call to an automated bank system, adding to his alibi, while using a second phone to call Emily. Emily answers in the kitchen and is attacked by a masked assailant, but stabs him in the neck with a meat thermometer. Steven returns expecting Emily to be dead, but finds the assailant's body. He takes the key from the body, puts it back on Emily's keychain then damages the service entrance door and plants a screwdriver on the assailant. Police arrive, led by Detective Moe Karaman. They remove the assailant's mask, the body is not David's.

Still losing money, Steven receives a call from David, who plays an audio tape of the two discussing the plan to kill Emily. They agree to meet at a local deli, where David demands the full $500,000 or he will turn Steven in.

After realizing the key on her keychain belongs to the assailant, Emily confronts Steven. He responds with evidence of Emily's affair with David and accuses him of blackmailing them. When he saw the dead body in their kitchen, he claims he assumed it was David and took the key from his pocket so as not to implicate Emily. He urges her not to call the police.

After exchanging the money with David, Steven kills him, taking David's gun and the money. A dying David laughs, revealing he mailed a copy of the tape to Emily via courier service. Steven rushes home and finds the mail still unopened. He hides the money, gun and audio tape in his safe before Emily enters the room. She reveals that she knows everything, having found the tape in the safe while he showered. When she turns to leave, Steven attacks her. A brief fight ensues, ending when Emily uses David's gun from the safe to shoot and kill Steven.

• Michael Douglas as Steven Taylor
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Emily Bradford Taylor
• Viggo Mortensen as David Shaw
• David Suchet as Detective Mohamed "Moe" Karaman
• Sarita Choudhury as Raquel Martinez
• Constance Towers as Sandra Bradford
• Novella Nelson as Ambassador Alice Wills
• Michael P. Moran as Bobby Fain
• Gerry Becker as Roger Brill
• Will Lyman as Jason Gates
• David Eigenberg as Stein

This section does not cite any sources. (December 2014)

In Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder, the characters played by Ray Milland and Grace Kelly are depicted as living in a modest London flat, although it is implied that they are quite wealthy, as Milland's character, Tony Wendice, is a retired tennis champion. Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow's characters are also shown as an extremely wealthy couple. Both Kelly and Paltrow's characters are shown as striking blondes. Both films make use of the mystery of the fact that no key was found on the dead man when he was killed by both Kelly and Paltrow's characters, as both their husbands had removed them in an attempt to pin the crime on their wives. Toward the beginning of Dial M For Murder, when Kelly and Robert Cummings are shown together in the Wendice flat, and Milland comes home, Kelly greets him with "There you are!" and kisses him. Presumably in homage to the original film, Douglas's character greets Paltrow exactly the same way when she arrives home to their apartment at the beginning of A Perfect Murder.

Throughout the film, Emily carries an Hermès Kelly bag, named after Grace Kelly who was often photographed carrying the model of purse.

The title A Perfect Murder matches the translation that was made in some countries of Hitchcock's film, known in Italian as Il delitto perfetto and in Spanish as Crimen perfecto; in French it was Le crime était presque parfait.

Principal photography began on October 14, 1997. Filming took place in & around New York City. The location of Steven & Emily's apartment was filmed at The Convent of The Sacred Heart building in Manhattan. The Bradford Mansion was filmed at the Salutation House in Long Island. Filming ended on January 13, 1998.

An alternate ending exists and is presented, with optional commentary, on the original Blu-ray disc release.^[2][3] In this version, Steven comes back from finding the key replaced where he had hidden it and Emily confronts him in the kitchen rather than in their foyer. The scene plays out with the same dialogue, but Steven never physically attacks her. He still tells her that the only way she'll leave him is dead, and she shoots him. Steven then says "You won't get away with this" before dying and Emily purposely injures herself, making it look like self-defense.