Tony Wendice

Tony Wendice is the main antagonist of Frederick Knott's play Dial M For Murder and Alfred Hitchcock's 1950 film adaptation, in which he is portrayed by Ray Milland.

character overview
Tony is an over-the-hill ex-tennis player who married an heiress named Margot to secure his fortunes after his career began to falter. When he discovers that Margot is cheating on him with a writer named Mark Halliday, he fears that he will lose the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed, and resolves to kill Margot anfd inherit her fortune.

That same night, he sees an old school friend named Charles Swann, a petty criminal, and decides to enlist him to kill Margot. He stalks Swann for a year, learning his routine and weaknesses. Meanwhile, he steals one of Halliday's love letters to Margot and writes her an anonymous blackmail note offering to sell it back to her. He invites Swann to his house under the pretext of wanting to buy his car. He then blackmails Swann, who conned and murdered his landlady, into agreeing to kill Margot.

The plan goes awry, however; Swann attacks Margot, but she kills him in self-defense. Tony decides to turn the situation to his advantage and manipulates the crime scene to make it look like Margot killed Swann in cold blood; he plans to make sure she is executed so he can inherit her estate. He then plants evidence to make it look like Swann was backmailing Margot with evidence of her affair, and that Margot killed him to rid herself of a blackmailer. The plan works - Margot is found guilty of Swann's murder, and sentenced to death.

However, Inspector Hubbard, the main investigator on the case, is not satisfied by the official account of Swann's death, and digs deeper, eventually suspecting Tony of orchestrating the entire thing. On the day before Margot's scheduled execution, he has Halliday go to Tony's house and try to persuade him to confess to planning Margot's murder and thus being responsible for Swann's death. Hubbard then arrives at Tony's house and tricks him into revealing the location of his latch-key, which Swann used to enter the house and try to kill Margot. Tony feigns indignance and leaves, unaware that Hubbard has swapped his key for an imposter. When Tony realizes the ruse, he rushes back to the house and uses the fake key, thus revealing his guilt. Upon realizing that he has been caught, Tony pours himself a drink, and offers Hubbard one, as well. His exact sentence is never revealed, but it canbe assumed that he is either executed or imprisoned for life.