Dressed to Kill (1980)

Prompted by the new documentary on De Palma, I finally sat down and watched this film. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was: It's really nothing but a tarted-up giallo, the sort of thing Mario Bava or Dario Argento might have made, only with a 20-times-bigger budget and at least one bigger star.

Like the Italian giallos, it has a complicated, thoroughly preposterous comic-book-Hitchcock plot, the same salaciousness, the same lurid violence, the same air of unreality.

However, where Argento films tend to have jarringly inappropriate electronic rock scores, this one has an equally inappropriate lush romantic score that reminded me of a high-priced supper club.

Granted, context is everything. If "Dressed to Kill" were the work of some little-known Italian genre specialist, I'm sure I'd be praising it right now. I like giallos. Lurid and preposterous? Not a problem.

But for a well-regarded (if controversial) Hollywood box-office hit, the film seems stupid, fakey, and somewhat distasteful. Even with a body double, you'd think Angie Dickinson would have been embarrassed by it.

I actually found myself looking away at times -- not because of the excessive (and really pretty gratuitous) blood and nudity, but because of the horribly stilted acting by Dickinson and, even worse, by Nancy Allen. I guess it's been said a million times, but wow, the latter certainly was lucky to have been married to De Palma. It's hard to imagine any other way she'd ever have been cast. (Nice lady, I'm sure. Pleasant enough in "Strange Invaders.")

The film is currently 35 years old, and it feels it. The plot seems crude. The action scenes, sometimes in slow motion, feel stagey and unreal. The police-procedural aspects and the scenes involving psychotherapy also seem unreal (though that sort of thing is par for the course in giallos).

What also felt dated -- and, God knows, politically incorrect by today's standards -- was the treatment of blacks and transsexuals, though I must admit this seemed downright refreshing.

P.S. I once had a long conversation with a film-school student who'd just won some sort of college-level directing award, and I remember asking him whom he regarded as the most overrated director then working. Without much of a pause, he said, "Brian De Palma" -- which I thought was a pretty good answer.

Still, I do very much enjoy "Phantom of the Paradise" and "Carlito's Way."

Fmovies: "Dressed To Kill", is one of the best thrillers ever made. Its dealings with sex and violence make this a film for adults. Brian De Palma, once again, proves why no other director can match his use of the camera to tell a story. He directs many scenes without dialog, and he tells much of his story, strictly through the use of his visuals, and Pino Donnagio's brilliant score. Filmed in Panavision, the film MUST be seen in widescreen, as De Palma uses the entire width of the film to tell his story. Cropped, on video, "Dressed To Kill", is barely the same movie. Solid performances from its cast, superb direction, and, perhaps, the finest film score ever written, make "Dressed To Kill" a must see.

For early 80' this movie deserves respect. Brian De Palma present story that keep's your attention to the last minute.

I usually start napping after barely half of movie's today but he's movies keeps me focused. What i like in this and on movies by Palma i watched is-unpredictability.

Good movie, worth of watching, seriously.

It can be better of course but it's good. Long as keep your attention, driving you into story, stopping you from thinking. You just lie and let movie drives you into a story, enjoying a good trip to the end.

Acting is so natural, almost like in real life behavior. Characters in this movie are very natural. I like that.

Dressed to Kill fmovies. I have read about the controversy this film created back in 1980, but it wasn't until now when I viewed the film that I can see why. This is a sharp, twisty thriller that borrows effectively from Alfred Hitchcock trademarks. But upon viewing it, Dressed to Kill is a strangely erotic film that is almost like a soft porn movie. Some of the scenes made me think that I was watching a porn film, but this film will succeed in holding your attention.

This film, directed by Brian De Palma, is about a woman named Kate Miller who has a sexually frustrated life and she sees a therapist named Dr. Robert Elliot. But sometime later, she meets this guy at a museum and they have sex. But she finds out he has a sexually transmitted disease and in her haste, she leaves without her wedding ring. But when she reaches the elevator, she is brutally murdered by a razor. From there on out, confusion ensues as people try to track down the killer.

The acting is really good. Michael Caine shines very well as Elliot and I wish he had more screen time. Nancy Allen was very effective and had the best overall performance. Angie Dickinson was also really good, but she hardly had any screen time.

Overall, Dressed to Kill is a very smart, though erotic thriller that gives off a similar feel to a Hitchcock film. The tension is high and it can also be scary at times. So in other words, it effectively delivers the thrills. I rate this film 9/10.

Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) is having problems in her marriage and otherwise--enough to see a psychologist. When her promiscuity gets her into trouble, it also involves a bystander, Liz Blake (Nancy Allen), who becomes wrapped up in an investigation to discover the identity of a psycho killer.

Dressed to Kill is somewhat important historically. It is one of the earlier examples of a contemporary style of thriller that as of this writing has extensions all the way through Hide and Seek (2005). It's odd then that director Brian De Palma was basically trying to crib Hitchcock. For example, De Palma literally lifts parts of Vertigo (1958) for Dressed to Kill's infamous museum scene. Dressed to Kill's shower scenes, as well as its villain and method of death have similarities to Psycho (1960). De Palma also employs a prominent score with recurrent motifs in the style of Hitchcock's favorite composer Bernard Herrmann. The similarities do not end there.

But De Palma, whether by accident or skill, manages to make an oblique turn from, or perhaps transcend, his influence, with Dressed to Kill having an attitude, structure and flow that has been influential. Maybe partially because of this influence, Dressed to Kill is also deeply flawed when viewed at this point in time. Countless subsequent directors have taken their Hitchcock-like De Palma and honed it, improving nearly every element, so that watched now, after 25 years' worth of influenced thrillers, much of Dressed to Kill seems agonizingly paced, structurally clunky and plot-wise inept.

One aspect of the film that unfortunately hasn't been improved is Dressed to Kill's sex and nudity scenes. Both Dickinson and Allen treat us to full frontal nudity (Allen's being from a very skewed angle), and De Palma has lingering shots of Dickinson's breasts, strongly implicit masturbation, and more visceral sex scenes than are usually found in contemporary films. Quite a few scenes approach soft-core porn. I'm no fan of prudishness--quite the opposite. Our culture's puritanical, monogamistic, sheltered attitude towards sex and nudity is disturbing to me. So from my perspective, it's lamentable that Dressed to Kill's emphasis on flesh and its pleasures is one of the few aspects in which others have not strongly followed suit or trumped the film. Perhaps it has been desired, but they have not been allowed to follow suit because of cultural controls from conservative stuffed shirts.

De Palma's direction of cinematography and the staging of some scenes are also good enough that it is difficult to do something in the same style better than De Palma does it. He has an odd, characteristic approach to close-ups, and he's fond of shots from interesting angles, such as overhead views and James Whale-like tracking across distant cutaways in the sets. Of course later directors have been flashier, but it's difficult to say that they've been better. Viewed for film-making prowess, at least, the museum scene is remarkable in its ability to build very subtle tension over a dropped glove and a glance or two while following Kate through the intricately nested cubes of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

On the other hand, from a point of view caring about the story, and especially if one is expecting to watch a thriller, everything through the museum scene and slightly beyond might seem too slow and silly. Because of its removal from the main genre of the film and its primary concern with directorial panache (a

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho may be one of the most influential movies ever-for a start it was at least partially responsible for the whole subgenre of 'slasher' movies and the shower scene has inspired more homages than you can count. Brian De Palma's thriller Dressed To Kill is basically a semi remake of Psycho,right from the structure of it's story to it's villain right down to certain specific scenes. It's also an absolutely stunning piece of audience manipulation and perhaps more importantly a cracking thriller. Watch this film knowing about the Psycho element and as long as you don't mind some graphic sex and violence you should have a whale of a time. In fact,to a modern audience it may very well be more effective than Psycho {and this is coming from a big Hitckcock fan}.

De Palma's intentions are apparent right from the beginning,which shows a naked woman, played by Angie Dickinson 'enjoying herself' in a shower,with huge close ups of her breasts {not Angie Dickinson's though}. A man suddenly surprises and assaults her. Than we cut to Angie and her husband having loveless sex on a bed. This whole opening sequence has it all-the Psycho reference,the slight twisting of that reference,the dreamy eroticism,the sudden shock,the surprise. It shows De Palma,more than anything else,playing with his audience,manipulating them like puppets on strings. Yes,like Hitckcock,but sometimes going further. Basically,if you like this opening sequence,you will enjoy the rest of the film.

While there definitely IS a plot {quite a familiar one,but you should know this by now},it is Dressed To Kill's set pieces that stand out,that show De Palma's brilliance. There's a dreamlike and subtly erotic sequence in an art gallery where Dickinson is picked up by a stranger,an incredible murder in a lift which is shocking without showing THAT much blood,a thrilling chase in an underground train station where the heroine is pursued not just by the killer but for a while by a gang of youths,a very scary ending about which I won't go into {except that it features another shower scene!}but where the tension is ramped up to an incredible degree. Here,De Palma is BETTER than Hitchcock.

Although the best scenes are those without dialogue,where De Palma just lets Pino Donnaggio's lush,darkly beautiful score take over the sound,there is quite a bit of fun to be had in the often deliberately humorous dialogue,and the really rather cute relationship between nerdy Keith Gordon and tough as nails Nancy Allen,who make a great team. The identity of the killer is not exactly hard to spot,perhaps more work could have been done here,but going by the cheeky attitude of the film in general this may have been intentional.

When Dressed To Kill originally came out it was heavily criticised for being misogynist,especially with the first third of the film {just in case you HAVEN'T seen Psycho,I won't go into detail}. I've always believed that this part of the film is about the possible dangers of indulging one's fantasies. De Palma is NOT a misogynist anyway really,think of the many memorable heroines of his films. Even if you disagree, see Dressed to Kill to see an oft criticised but occasionally brilliant director at the height of his powers.