...a good, taut thriller that may have you turning your head on a couple of occasions and maybe scratching it on a couple of others.
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Brian De Palma has always been unfairly beset by critics. In his early years as a director he was accused of ripping off Alfred Hitchcock and of being exceptionally misogynistic. Today he´s criticized for not making films as well as he used to. Seems like a fellow can´t win. "Dressed To Kill," his admittedly brutal, 1980 suspense film, is a case in point. Yes, the film is clearly influenced by Hitchcock´s "Psycho," but what few folks complain about is that his major cinematic thefts are really from himself, namely from own 1976 fright flick, "Carrie." As for misogynist, well, that was a part of "Psycho," too, wasn´t it.
In any case, no matter from whom he´s borrowed, the result in "Dressed To Kill" is a good, taut thriller that may have you turning your head on a couple of occasions and maybe scratching it on a couple of others, but you´ll be riveted to your seat the rest of the time. MGM studios have issued it in a Special Edition that includes multiple versions of the film and an array of extra features that make the DVD an attractive package.
The movie begins with an almost exact duplication of the opening of "Carrie," complete with dreamy music and a slow-motion shower scene erupting in unexpected violence. From there it follows a "Psycho"-like plot involving murder and duplicity. Angie Dickinson stars, fresh from her role as television´s "Police Woman." She plays a beautiful married woman, Kate Miller, fast approaching middle age, who feels neglected by her husband and questions her own sexual attractiveness. (The actress admits to a body double for close-ups in her nude scene but is nevertheless still more than good looking.) Her nerdy teenage son, Peter (Keith Gordon), is a computer geek, self-absorbed in his basement science projects.
In desperation, Kate looks to other men for comfort, like her analyst, Dr. Robert Elliott (Michael Caine), and a stranger she meets in an art gallery. The doctor rejects her come-ons, but the stranger invites her home after a lengthy and effective scene in the labyrinthine gallery, a scene fraught with sexual tension and initially mistaken intentions. Immediately following her brief, afternoon affair, she suspects she´s contracted a venereal disease, but that soon becomes the least of her worries. I might add that De Palma differs from Hitchcock mainly in that he shows the splatter of blood in full color.
The next major figure popping into the picture is a call girl named Liz Blake (Nancy Allen), who is a witness to a brutal murder in an elevator (which substitutes here for a shower stall). Teaming up to solve the killing, Liz, the son Peter, and Dr. Elliott all try to locate the mysterious blonde that Liz saw wielding a razor in the elevator, a blonde who may just be one of the doctor´s patients. Subsequently, all three are discouraged from and yet prompted to investigate further by a tough, crude New York City police detective named Marino, played in stereotypical NYPD tough, crude fashion by Dennis Franz.
"Dressed To Kill" combines sex and violence, screams of pleasure and pain, in almost equal measure. Suspense builds on suspense, tensions mount, and the double endings remain just as frightening today as when most of us first saw them some twenty years before. The mark of a good thriller, I think, is that it continues to produce shivers down your spine even when you know full well what´s going to happen.
Not to suggest, however, that the film is perfect. If you think about its internal logic too much, the film may seem more than a trifle irrational. And De Palma probably lays it on a little heavy in the symbolic meaning department, especially when pointing up people´s dual personalities (like Kate´s married life vs. her secret adultery), and in his use of split screens and mirrors to convey the idea of people´s double images. I mean, in this film everyone is watching everyone else; heck, they´re even watching themselves. In some scenes there are even split screens and mirrors within split screens! It gets to be a bit much. But in general "Dressed To Kill" is a dazzler of cinematic technique and an intelligent, crowd-pleasing slasher.
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