Dressed to Kill (1980)

Dressed to Kill (1980)

What do you get when you combine Alfred Hitchcock and a thriller suspense story from the 1980’s? Well, you would get 1980’s thriller Dressed to Kill. From the beginning, you can tell that director Brian De Palma was trying to emulate Alfred Hitchcock’s films of old. Many young filmmakers at the time tried to make films with a Hitchcock influence, but many of them failed. However, Dressed to Kill mostly succeeded in creating a “Hitchcock” film. According to famed critic Roger Ebert, “He (De Palma) places his emphasis on the same things that obsessed Hitchcock: precise camera movements, meticulously selected visual movements, characters seen as types rather than personalities, and violence as a sudden interruption of the most mundane situations.” While the movie may not be peak Hitchcock, we get have an entertaining thriller that is violent, engaging, and surprisingly effective.

 

My first thought of the movie was that it is a strangely erotic movie. In all honesty, it is really a softcore porn movie, at least that is what it felt like to me. It is a movie that pushes sex up to the top and then some. It does star some respectable Hollywood actors and a well-loved director, so at least the names give the movie legitimacy. Let me tell you why I believed this film was a porno at first. Just listen to the plot. There is this middle-aged woman named Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) who is frustrated with her sexual life. She goes to a therapist named Dr. Robert Elliot (Michael Caine) to help her through her crisis. After a session with the therapist, she randomly meets this guy at a museum and they have sex. After she finds out he has a STD, she leaves hastily. The problem is that she forgets her wedding ring. As she goes back to retrieve her ring, she is brutally murdered with a razor. Now there are all sorts of problems as everyone tries to track down the killer.

 

I thought the performances were solid ones. The big name here is Michael Caine. He does wonderful in all his films, and there is no difference here. His character is very charismatic, but there is a hint of darkness hidden behind the charisma, and that interested me because I am used to Michael Caine playing a beloved, helpful good guy. Angie Dickinson gave a solid performance as the sexually-deprived housewife. I am still on the fence about Nancy Allen’s performance. She played a high-class prostitute named Liz Blake and was named the only suspect for the murder. Her performance went over-the-top at times, a little more than I was comfortable with. It’s funny because she was nominated both for a Golden Globe and a Razzie for her performance.

 

One important thing to note about the movie is that it is not pushed forward narratively. De Palma and writer George Litto made this film more of a stylistic one. Also, certain themes we look at today were looked at differently thirty-seven years ago. The movie has a strange way in using transsexuality and schizophrenia to build the case for the homicidal maniac seen killing people in the movie. There are plot issues at hand, but plot is not the strongest suit of the film. It is all about the shocker value that is effectively delivered.

 

Dressed to Kill is an interesting movie to say the least. It’s an erotic thriller that follows the footsteps of earlier Hitchcock movies. But one thing to note is that it is not a Hitchcock film, but De Palma comes very close in recreating one. The film is suspenseful, thrilling, and there are what seems to be an indefinite amount of twists and turns. If anything, you get to see Michael Caine deliver a performance outside of his wheelhouse.

 

My Grade: B