Themes: Witnessing a Crime, Woman In Jeopardy, Serial Killers
Main Cast: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon, Dennis Franz
Release Year: 1980
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
One of Brian De Palma's most divisive films, Dressed to Kill is a spine-chilling Alfred Hitchcock update for the late 1970s. Sexually frustrated wife and mother Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) visits her New York psychiatrist, Dr. Elliott (Michael Caine), to complain about her unfulfilling erotic life. When she then goes to meet her husband at a museum, she meets an anonymous man whom she follows out to a cab. After an afternoon of satisfying sex, Kate discovers that the man has a venereal disease, but that information becomes a moot point when a razor-wielding blonde woman slashes Kate to ribbons in the elevator of the man's building. Blonde prostitute Liz (Nancy Allen), who caught a glimpse of the murderer, becomes both the prime suspect and the killer's next target. With the police less than willing to believe her story, Liz joins forces with Kate's son Peter (Keith Gordon) to get the psychopath themselves. Steamy material cut to get an R-rating was restored on the unrated laser disc version. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Review
Just as Brian De Palma's Obsession rewrote Vertigo, Dressed To Kill rewrites Psycho. This time out, however, De Palma displays far more wit in an overhaul enjoyable for even those less immersed in Hitchcockiana than himself. Criticized for its sadism, the film might more accurately be described as an exploration of the sadism already implicit in Hitchcock's work, particularly in a bravura opening sequence featuring Angie Dickinson. Of course, how easily viewers let De Palma off the hook will depend on how literally they take the whole exercise. Certainly decades of advancement in gay rights date certain aspects of the film. But with De Palma it's best never to underestimate the satirical element, and here he combines his biting humor with some of the most thrilling suspense sequences of his career. It's a delicate balance that can produce such misfires as Body Double but when done right makes for a pretty thrilling ride. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide
David Margulies - Dr. Levy; Ken Baker - Warren Lockman; Brandon Maggart - Cleveland Sam; Susanna Clemm - Betty Luce; Mary Davenport - Woman in Coffee Shop; Sean O'Rinn - Museum Cab Driver; Bill Randolph - Chase Cab Driver; Robert Lee Rush - Hood; Fred Weber - Mike Miller; Sam Williams - Subway Cop; Norman Evans - Ted
Credit
Fred Caruso - Associate Producer, Vic Ramos - Casting, Natalie Massara - Conductor, Gary Jones - Costume Designer, Ann Roth - Costume Designer, Michael Rauch - First Assistant Director, Brian De Palma - Director, Jerry Greenberg - Editor, Pino Donaggio - Composer (Music Score), Natalie Massara - Musical Direction/Supervision, Joe Cranzano - Makeup, Gary Weist - Production Designer, Ralf Bode - Cinematographer, Samuel Z. Arkoff - Producer, George Litto - Producer, Gary J. Brink - Set Designer, Steve James - Stunts, Brian De Palma - Screenwriter
Dressed to Kill is a 1980suspensethriller/horror film written and directed by Brian de Palma. It stars Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson and Nancy Allen. The original music score is composed by Pino Donaggio. The film is marketed with the tagline "Brian de Palma, master of the macabre, invites you to a showing of the latest fashion... in murder." It centers on the murder of a housewife, and the investigation headed by the witness to the murder, a young prostitute, and the housewife’s teenaged son.
The film was the target of some backlash from the gay and transgender communities, who felt that its portrayal of transgender people was misguided and homophobic. The film is rated R by the MPAA and runs at 105 minutes.
Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) is a sexually frustrated housewife and mother, living in the suburbs of New York, who is in therapy with New York City psychiatrist Dr. Robert Elliott (Michael Caine). During an appointment with Dr. Elliott, Kate attempts to seduce him, at which point Elliott rejects her advances. Later that day, Kate goes to the Metropolitan Museum and for ten minutes without any dialog has an unexpected flirtation with a mysterious stranger. Kate and the stranger "stalk" each other through the museum until they finally wind up outside, where Kate joins him in a taxicab. They immediately begin to have sex in the back of the cab, and their experience continues at his apartment.
Later, Kate awakens and discreetly leaves while the man is asleep, but not before she rifles through some of his papers and discovers that he has a sexually transmitted disease. Mortified, Kate leaves the apartment and gets in the elevator, but on the way down she realizes that she has left her wedding ring on the stranger's nightstand. She rides back up to retrieve it, but the elevator doors open on the figure of a large, imposing blonde woman in dark sunglasses wielding a straight razor. She slashes Kate to death in the elevator.
The prostitute Liz Blake (Nancy Allen) happens upon the body and catches a glimpse of the killer, therefore becoming both the prime suspect and the killer's next target. Dr. Elliott receives a bizarre answering machine message from "Bobbi", a transsexual he is treating. Bobbi taunts Dr. Elliott for breaking off their therapy sessions, apparently because Dr. Elliott refuses to sign the necessary papers for Bobbi to get a sex change operation. Elliott eventually becomes desperate, visiting Bobbi's new psychiatrist and trying to convince him that Bobbi is a danger to herself and others.
Meanwhile, the police are less than willing to believe Liz's story, and she joins forces with Kate's son Peter (Keith Gordon) to expose the killer. Peter is an inventor, and he uses a series of homemade listening devices and time-lapse cameras to track patients from Elliott's office. They catch Bobbi on camera leaving Elliott's office, but Liz is being stalked by a tall blonde figure in a wig and sunglasses. Bobbi makes several attempts on her life, one of them being thwarted by Peter, who rescues Liz in the nick of time by spraying Bobbi in the New York City Subway with some homemade mace.
Finally Liz and Peter scheme to get into Elliott's office to look at his appointment book and get Bobbi's name. Liz baits Dr. Elliott by coming on to him, and distracts him long enough to make a brief exit and rifle through his appointment book. When she returns, Bobbi rather than Elliott confronts her; they are the same person. Elliott/Bobbi is shot and wounded by the female police officer who looks like Bobbi and has been trailing Liz. Liz recognizes the female cop as the tall blonde figure who was tracking her all along. Elliott is arrested by the police and placed in an insane asylum. It is explained by a psychiatrist that Elliott wanted to be a woman, but his "male" side wouldn't allow him to go through with the operation. Whenever a woman sexually aroused Elliott, "Bobbi", who represents the female side of the doctor's personality, became threatened and killed the source of contention. In the film's final sequence, Elliott escapes from the asylum and slashes Liz in the throat in a bloody act of vengeance, and she wakes up screaming, realizing that Elliot's attack was just a dream.
The film was the target of mild controversy when it became known that the nude body in the opening scene, taking place in a shower, was not that of Angie Dickinson but of Penthouse model Victoria Lynn.[1] This controversy stemmed mostly from Dickinson's status at the time as being a mature, still-slender and shapely, sex symbol; the provocative shower scene - and the film - originally seemed to cash in on the idea that this nude body was that of its star. However, this revelation of a body-double (a theme later explored by director De Palma in his 1984 release, Body Double) seemed to do no harm to its box office performance.
Although this film was quite successful for actor Michael Caine, he was nominated for a Razzie anyway.
There were two versions of the film, an R rated version and an unrated version. The unrated version was only longer by seconds that showed more genitalia in the above-mentioned shower scene and more blood in the elevator scene.
The film is rated R18 in New Zealand and its contains sexual violence.
Both Sean Connery and Liv Ullmann were approached in early 1979 by De Palma to appear as Elliot and Kate, respectively, but both passed on the project.
Actors Keith Gordon and Michael Caine would later play good-turned-bad protagonists in horror films (Gordon as Arnie Cunningham in Christine and Caine as Jon Lansdale in The Hand).
References
^ This information was featured in a question in the Baby Boomer Edition of Trivial Pursuit
