Am I the only one...

Tony Wendice wasn't a cheap chisler. He was a sophisticated, clever man who always had an eye out for his future, quite willing to make a temporary sacrifice for his long-term goals. And why would he have given up his tennis lifestyle, anyway? He enjoyed it. Having money allowed him to continue to indulge in that lifestyle. That's what money is for - a tool to let you do the things that you want to do. He continued playing up until he felt that he was getting old to play and, more importantly, that the lifestyle might put Margot on her guard. He explicitly says that he got a "9 to 5" job to placate Margot while he figured out what to do with her.

The man played at being an affectionate husband while he carefully wove together a plot to have her murdered - then when that failed, he continued to deceive her while he framed her for murder.

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I, too, wanted Tony to get away with the ATTEMPTED murder. Because his wife cheated on him in the first place, because she actually commited the murder, even in self defence, and because this could have been the perfect murder... If the scissors were not handy to Margot at that time, she would not have used them as a murder weapon- that was the chance factor that turned all the story upside down.
I have my own theory about the characters. Tony married Margot because he fell in love with her and not for her money. Margot was so young and beatiful, that it would be absurd to believe anything else. If she was a spinster type, like Olivia de Haviland in the Heiress, this would be logical, but Grace Kelly?? Then why not assume that the lover, Mark, would not be after her money, too ? So Tony married her for love, and continued his career as a tennis star. Margot was not willing to go with him on his various trips around the globe, but nevertheless felt neglected by his absences, she wanted to play house and be pampered by her husband. This situation led to her succumbing to the first man that approached her. The affair gets known to the husband and his reaction is typical of a man in love. He wants to kill them both, at first, but instead he chooses to abandon his career and devote all his time to her, even finds a job that is beneath his fame and talent, just to be near her. His jealousy is shown by his words: "This letter (the one Margot did not burn but kept in her bag all the time) became an obsession with me!" He obviously dreaded the idea of losing her, and preferred to murder her than having to see her abandon him for another man. The fortune that he would inherit in case of her death, was a plus, but not the most important thing for him, rather another by-product of his anger and frustration, such as : "I will revenge, and I will get her money, too". Otherwise he would have filed for a divorce and got half of her money on the grounds of adultery. Since he NEVER knew , as we did, that Margot had decided to stay with him and dump the lover, he was in constant fear of her walking out on him, so he decided to murder her. His cynical attitude when trying to "influence" Swan into killing Margot, was just an act. As a true Englishman, he hid his emotions, not wanting to appear weak and vulnerable. The irony is that Margot was actually always in love with Tony, the affair was just a temporary boost for her ego, and as soon as she had Tony by her side, it ended for her. But as the affair was kept secret, her intention to stay with Tony was also not revealed, and so the plan of murder started to materialise in Tony's mind. And what a mind he had! Even when the original plan failed, by a strike of bad luck, he immediately turned the situation in his favour again. Had Swan followed his instructions regarding the key, and had the inspector not used such unorthodox methods, Tony would have had his revenge and would have got away with it.
The lover,Mark, on the other hand, is the worst type imaginable. He takes advantage of a woman in an emotionally unstable phase, has no scruples about breaking a marriage, and has the nerve to ask the husband to confess a crime, of which he knows him innocent, so that he has the chance to be with his lover again. Why he did not make the sacrifice himself, if he loved her so much?
So my sympathy during the whole film went to the couple, Tony and Margot, who , although very much in love with each other, got entangled in such a mess, and spent so much of their energy hiding the truth, planning murder, feeling guilty and miserable, and finally ended up, one in jail and the other in the arms of a man whom she surely not loved. I loved how Tony faced this gloomy prospect,though. Always the gentleman, always the fair play sportsman who knows how to lose in style...

"He didn´t want to lose her money".

But Margot didn´t seem to have any intention of leaving him, did she?



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan