Dressed To Kill

Dressed to Kill (1980)

Runtime: 104 minutes

Directed by: Brian De Palma

Starring: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon, Dennis Franz

From: Filmways

I only allude to it in the review itself, but I imagine it's common knowledge among film fans... this is a riff on Psycho: 

As various people on Letterboxd are going through the entire filmography of Brian De Palma, I figured I'd see at least one of his films in the early part of this year and this one happens to be for free on Prime if you are a member.

De Palma has always made it clear he is a gigantic fan of Hitchcock; this film was obviously inspired by one of Hitch's movies but I dare not spoil which one for those that haven't seen this yet. Dressed to Kill starts off memorably: a dream sequence where Angie Dickinson (in full makeup) is showering and as it's supposed to be over the top gratuitous, she-OK, her body double-is soaping up her boobs! From there, we discover Angie's character is a sexually frustrated woman in a bad marriage and she has a 1980 tech genius son... a giallo-style murder eventually happens and brought into this mess is a prostitute played by Nancy Allen; in addition, Michael Caine is Dickinson's psychiatrist.

A percentage of a certain segment of the population will not like the key conceit of the movie as they feel it's harmful stereotyping. I was not offended but then again I am a heterosexual white male and it is not incomprehensible to me nor do I fault anyone for finding this objectionable. That said, for me this was a finely crafted thriller and a very good movie... sleazy, but still very good. Naturally, the score from Pino Donaggio was aces; in addition, it was shot very well and there are various De Palma trademarks, including split screen and split diopter shots. Recalling the hilariously scuzzy characters he played in Blow Out and Psycho II, I was hoping for more of the same with the role Dennis Franz played here, and I was not let down-while a police detective, he was a crude and rude member of law enforcement... and not only had a full head of hair, but wore some tremendous period clothing.

There are some tremendous sequences in the film, and there's a bravura ending to boot. At least for me, this was fun trash.