Dressed to Kill (1980)

Great Film overall

Good start, but then it gets ruined

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

O yes ...was just telling how extremely BAD a director De Palma is ... i mean i have seen at least a couple of notable movie he made ... Carrie ... (the only work of Stephen King made to film i have really liked so far btw ...) or Scarface ...i do admit i haven't seen all of his works really although have seen enough not to be very curious in seeing the rest ... so pardon my harshness if i'm going a little bit too fast ...but this one's a really weak movie imo! only a few slightly noteworthy moments that don't last long enough to make you feel good really while some well known actors offer very bad acting ... and that tells me only one thing: the director didn't make it!the story is cheesy as well ... too obvious i'd say ... and considering at the time of making this failure of a movie the director's been into making movies for two decades already yet failing at it would make me feel a little bit surprised in fact, especially when he's already made a good one not so long before this and another very good one only three years later ...i guess De Palma's kind of overly obsessed with sex and violence himself or he wouldn't be making movies like this that actually fail in delivering both items in a decent manner! he did so even more badly in another one of his movies but can't remember its name now ... it was more like a porn movie actually but dressed over with an apparently serious story ... another bad work of his imo ...please don't get me wrong though! most of his movies i have seen so far are VERY WELL MADE indeed from the viewpoint of 'art direction' so to say ... but even in the best of them there are often some really bad 'silly mistakes' here and there that makes one think what's going on really ...

Following a housewife's brutal murder, the only witness to the incident teams up with the woman's son to try to find the culprit which leads them to the patient of a psychiatrist who treated her and tries to stop the killer from striking them in order to cover the crime.This one turned out to be quite the rather enjoyable effort. A lot of the film's great parts come from the manner in which this one deals with the expectations featured here of the film by following so close to its influences. As it follows so close to the main format here, as the general structure employed here comes directly with the structure of having the first half focus solely on the victim to get killed off and then morph over into the investigation into the incidents, that makes for a great deal of fun here as it deals with the few changes to be had with the storyline. That familiarity lends itself a great deal to the overall manner in which this one moves along as that keeps this one a lot more entertaining than it really should be without a whole lot of slashing action throughout here. With a big emphasis on the murder investigation and her involvement in the procedure, there's a nice emphasis here to follow up the later adverts of that ones' followers in a distinctly European manner by introducing not only the main investigation from the police but also going rather nicely into the amateur investigation by way of a piece of evidence only briefly glimpsed during the incident that becomes a central part of the investigation. These elements all give it a rather distinct and pronounced atmosphere to these brands of films which really lets it dwell in that type of sleaze far more comfortably than would be expected, not only from the type of nudity but also the rather stark sex scenes and frequently intoned psychosexual themes from the killer's motivation which is straight out of that particular school of thriller which makes this one connect quite well there. Even with some incredibly well-done stalker scenes, including the opening attack in the elevator, the subway sequence or the finale at the office which give this some rather suspenseful stalking as well to balance it all with plenty to like. These don't help the fact that there's just not a whole lot of slasher action here, as the more thriller aspects here dominate this one so it doesn't have a lot of stalking scenes and the body count itself is so low as to not really offer much in the way of bloodshed or gore. Those looking for a straight-up slasher won't be interested in this one at all.Rated R: Extreme Graphic Language, Full Nudity, Graphic Violence and several intense sex scenes.

'Dressed to Kill' for me is one of the prime examples of a film which doesn't really make you think a lot, but has numerous individual scenes which leave you in awe because of the masterful filmmaking on show. Anyone who has seen a few films from the past will be able to figure out that the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock looms large over pretty much every minute of this film apart from some other influences like Dario Argento and other Italian suspense filmmakers of the 70s.Let me first point out the aspects of the film that I loved:1. Angie Dickinson and Michael Caine are very good. Dickinson is supposed to portray a sexually frustrated wife who can't help but crave constant sexual fantasies. She does it very well. Her acting has a lot to do with her facial gestures and expressions because a lot of her scenes have very few words. Caine on the other hand is fascinating as the psychiatrist who always remains mysterious. He is a character that one can't really figure out and Caine brings the complexity out brilliantly.2. De Palma shows here why he is a masterful technician. He uses all his film school knowledge and influences to the core. We see long extended takes, a number of tracking shots, the juxtaposition of saturated colours in the rest of the film with the darkness in some crucial scenes, the use of split diopter shots and split screens,etc. Anyone who loves the craft of filmmaking will find the film a very exciting watch due to the various techniques being used. 3. The soundtrack for the film composed by Pino Donaggio is great. The main theme is beautiful.4. The famous Art Museum scene has to be given a special mention although it is just a further representation of De Palma's masterful filmmaking. It takes a brilliant director to have the capacity to execute a wordless scene like this. A whole plethora of emotions and numerous changes in mood are conveyed just through the camera work, editing and Angie Dickinson's facial acting. 5. Lastly, I'll say that 'Dressed to Kill' still offers a fun, engaging film watching experience to anyone. It is well directed and the 104 minutes run time just flows by.Let's come to what didn't work for me:1. I have already mentioned that this film is heavily influenced by Hitchcock's work. It is impossible to not get constantly reminded of 'Psycho' and to some extent of 'Vertigo', but that's also the problem here. The ideas that were present in Hitchcock's films were well explored by him that made the films thematically deep. 'Dressed to Kill' however in a way comes across as a film that wants to be Hitchcock-esque, but fails in exploring its ideas as well as Hitchcock did. The film really isn't about anything. There are certain ideas present in the film, but De Palma doesn't really seem interested in exploring them. The overt similarities with Hitchcock's scenes to some extent bring out the shortcomings in De Palma's ability to add layers and depth to the story.2. Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon and Dennis Franz didn't really impress me with their performances. I unfortunately found their performances to be a little artificial.3. The film for the most part remains sensual and sexy in a tasteful way. However there are two scenes in particular in the film which unfortunately looked a bit distasteful and sort of exploitative and this is something that also bugged me while watching 'Carrie'.So overall I found the film engaging and well made. One has to acknowledge De Palma's filmmaking prowess. However there are some glaring flaws in the film too which prevent it from making the transition from good to great. The style is brilliant, but the substance, not so much.

Brian De Palma here directs another above-average thriller dealing with his principal interests of sex and violence, in his own flamboyant and inimitable style. All of the things you expect from a good De Palma film are here, from the fluid and interesting use of the camera which gives the film a classy visual look, to the elegant music by Pina Donnagio, to the Hitchcock references. Here, it's PSYCHO, with supposed heroine Angie Dickinson, a middle-aged housewife with a problematic sex life, who becomes drawn into a storyline involving a killer.De Palma shows a total understanding of the elements required to make a gripping thriller in this movie and he does everything right. Not least of which is assembling a solid and proficient cast, highlighted by Michael Caine's twitchy turn as a psychiatrist with a dark secret of his own. Fine too, is Dickinson as the bored housewife, around whose sex life much of the film is centred. De Palma enjoys playing with Dickinson's character, twisting her around so that a moment of joy becomes a moment of horror as she learns that a man she has just slept with has a venereal disease. Nancy Allen turns up as the classy prostitute with a heart, who finds herself stalked by the killer in some suspenseful sequences (the best of which is at a train station - something about De Palma and train stations is just right). Smaller parts are taken by Keith Gordon as the young, brainy hero, and Dennis Franz, who adopts the cop-you-love-to-hate type role which he would recreate throughout much of his later career.Highlights in the film for me include an excellent cat-and-mouse game in an art gallery as Dickinson attempts to snag a prospective lover; the aforementioned train sequence in which Allen is chased by both a gang of thugs and the killer; and of course the taut lift sequence. The violence is bloody and brutal without being over the top, and a strong sexual undercurrent runs throughout the movie, occasionally erupting into the aforementioned violence with a lot of power. De Palma can't resist inserting one final shock/dream sequence at the end, either, which rounds things off nicely. Although his repeated camera tricks sometimes work against him (the split-screen, for instance, isn't as effective here as in CARRIE, making the screen muddled instead of exciting), DRESSED TO KILL still stands as a solid, powerful thriller made at the height of De Palma's career.