1958: Vertigo
Best known for its innovative use of the dolly zoom to induce a vertiginous sense of unreality — a technique used well by Sam Raimi in his earlier movies — technology is more a key focus of the movie making than the storytelling. An ex-cop, Scottie Ferguson, retired by his acrophobia, is asked to follow a woman believed to be possessed. She seemingly kills herself, driving the ex-cop further insane. Later, the officer discovers another woman had been hired to pretend to be the possessed woman who had actually been murdered. It all ends rather tragically.
Wikipedia would’ve given Ferguson the facts he needed about Carlotta. Foursquare would have pinpointed Mission San Juan Batista, letting the retired cop know Gavin had checked in there. Google Street View would’ve warned him about the tower (spoilers: it doesn’t actually exist). Facebook or LinkedIn would’ve debunked Judy Barton’s deception.
1959: North By Northwest
This is a pretty dense movie, with a great many twists and turns. If you’re familiar with it, the story would’ve been completely ruined inside of 10 minutes with a smartphone employing caller ID, booking hotels with Expedia or Priceline, buying art and antiques on EBay, and transferring secret files via Dropbox. Oh, and checking people’s identities on Facebook.
There’s a scene in “A Perfect Murder,” the Dial-M remake, where Gwyneth Paltrow is in the tub, but is drawn to the kitchen by a ringing phone. The phonecall is part of the plan to get her in place to be attacked and killed.
And it plays out rather absurdly onscreen, because not only does it require the viewer to accept that the penthouse-dwelling Paltrow has ONLY ONE TELEPHONE, and it’s in the kitchen, but that she also has no answering machine, thus allowing it to ring a few dozen times while she gets out of the bath and walks to the kitchen to answer the still-ringing phone.
And since this is the very scene of the supposed ‘Perfect Murder’ as promised by the title, it’s not exactly a minor plot hole.