DRESSED TO KILL (1980)

Fateful encounter: Angie Dickinson and Ken Baker

DRESSED TO KILL (1980). Written and directed by Brian De Palma.

Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) is a sexually-dissatisfied Manhattan housewife who encounters a dark, pursuing stranger (Ken Baker) at a museum and has an assignation with him. Angie has a son, Peter (Keith Gordon), who is a science genius, and she sees her therapist, Dr. Elliott (Michael Caine) on a regular basis. After Kate is gruesomely murdered in an elevator after her illicit rendezvous, Peter teams up with a witness, the hooker Liz (Nancy Allen). to find out if his mother's killer could be one of the doctor's psychotic patients. Their investigation puts both of them in harm's way.

Michael Caine 

Dressed to Kill is clearly a modern-day take on Psycho, if not quite in that classic's league. (De Palma was already under the Master's influence with Sisters and Obsession.) We have the blond female protagonist who is dispatched fairly early in the film, and a killer who may be a genuine transsexual (and not a sort-of transvestite as in Psycho). Then there's De Palma's heavy but totally appropriate reliance on a Hitchcock-like subjective camera. Indeed, the entire film has a stunning and stylish look due to the superior cinematography of Ralf D. Bode and it is all swathed in an evocative score by Pino Donaggio. 

Keith Gordon and Nancy Allen

In the unrated version of the film, which is more graphic both in terms of nudity and violence, the elevator slashing is even more disturbing than in the original. But the more memorable sequences include the aforementioned museum pick up and the encounter that Liz has with both some punks on one hand, and the slasher on the other, on a subway train. In addition to using Donaggio from his earlier film Carrie, De Palma employs another climactic nightmare sequence that is quite chilling and very well-crafted. Gerald B. Greenburg was the editor.

Angie Dickinson

What the script says about De Palma's attitude toward women I'll hold off on until my review of Body Double. I don't think the director was in any way intending to make a negative statement about transsexuals in Dressed to Kill -- in fact, he includes a clip from a Phil Donahue show where the guest is a happy and well-adjusted trans woman. The performances in this are all good, with Caine a stand-out, and there is also fine work from Dennis Franz as a cynical but likable cop assigned to the case. De Palma's career after this film has been hit or miss, with a couple of notable Al Pacino starrers, Casualties of War and Mission: Impossible being decided highlights. He's had a  number of clunkers in the suspense department, although Body Double has its devotees.

Verdict: Not an out-and-out masterpiece like Psycho, but a very good, very well-directed suspense thriller and high-class slasher. ***1/2.