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Staring: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon, Dennis Franz
Director: Brian De Palma
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Product Details
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780792850458
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0792850459
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2001-08-28
Running Time: 105
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: 1980-07-25

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Editorial Review
Amazon.com essential video
To condemn Dressed to Kill as a Hitchcock rip-off is to miss the sheer enjoyment of Brian De Palma's delirious 1980 thriller. Hitchcockian homages run rampant through most of De Palma's earlier films, and this one's chock-full of visual quotes, mostly cribbed from Vertigo and Psycho. But De Palma's indulgent depravity transcends simple mimicry to assume a vitality all its own. It's smothered in thickly atmospheric obsessions with sex, dread, paranoia, and voyeurism, not to mention a heavy dose of Psycho-like psychobabble about a wannabe transsexual who's compelled to slash up any attractive female who reminds him--the horror!--that he's still very much a man.

Angie Dickinson plays the sexually unsatisfied, fortysomething wife who's the killer's first target, relaying her sexual fantasies to her psychiatrist (Michael Caine) before actually living one of them out after the film's celebrated cat-and-mouse sequence in a Manhattan art museum. The focus then switches to a murder witness (De Palma's then-girlfriend Nancy Allen) and Dickinson's grieving whiz-kid son (Keith Gordon), who attempt to solve the murder while staying one step ahead (or so they think) of the crude detective (Dennis Franz) assigned to the case. Propelled by Pino Donaggio's lush and stimulating score, De Palma's visuals provide seductive counterpoint to his brashly candid dialogue, and the plot conceals its own implausibility with morbid thrills and intoxicating suspense. If you're not laughing at De Palma's shameless audacity, you're sure to be on the edge of your seat. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Dress to Kill still thrills after all these years, 2010-03-08
When Dressed to Kill came out a lot of people were furious. Some thought it was a rip off of Psycho and Vertigo. Some thought it was woman hating becuase the heroines are an adulteress and a hooker and the villain only attacks women who are not virtuous. People acted like Brian DePalma was film enemy number one. Years have passed and the critics looks silly. Dressed to Kill was a brilliant homage to Hitchcock's body of work. It was both a riddle and a campfire scary tale brought to life on film. Angie Dickensen as Kate, plays a woman who's frustrated and suddenly in an extraordinary sequence gets a chance to make her fantasies come true. Pale, ice blonde and dressed in ladylike white she goes to an art gallery and meets a tall, dark man and falls into his arms, car and bed. Dreamy, right? Yes, but since this is a Hitchcockian movie, poor Kate wakes up to a nightmare. Mr. Tall and Dark has a venereal disease and deliberately exposed her to it. DePalma doesn't tell which one. AIDS was unknown back then but everyone was talking about Herpes which had and still doesn't have a cure. VD was terrifying. All of a sudden Kate's boring life and boring husband don't seem so bad and she just wants to run home. She does but meets someone even worse than Mr. Tall and Dark.

A brassy haired woman in a trenchcoat, sunglasses and a big ole knife catches Kate on the elevator and stabs her to death. Just as the audience is going "Hey, they killed, Angie!" a new heroine appears. Nancy Allen, who was no Kim Novak but not as bad as the critics said back then, plays a cheeful, unashamed prostitute who is just leaving a client when she comes sees Kate being attacked. The killer gets a good look at her and the chase is on. Kate's precocious son, the hooker with a hear of gold, and the salty tounged detective who's assigned to the case try to catch the killer.

The crazy woman with the knife turns out to be someone who's been hidden in plain sight to the audience all along and it's shocking when the truth comes out. The ending is violent and a real kick in the gut. It's not a happy ending. The killer is caught but the survivors are left with scars that DePalma seems to hint, won't ever go away. Dressed to Kill stands up well after all these years. It's a wry commentary that says some dreams shouldn't come true and sometimes you really don't want to know what's really behind a man's mask.

2 stars out of 4, 2009-04-04
The Bottom Line:

Dressed to Kill is often cheesy fun (DePalma is rarely unentertaining) but it's a really pretty terrible movie that rips off/homages Psycho at a dozen different points, thinks transsexualism and multiple personalities are the same thing, wastes a nice performance by Nancy Allen and ends stupidly: rent it if you have a bunch of friends and want something campy to mock, but not for its legitimate merits.

Still holds up thanks to the perfect music score, 2009-11-08
I first saw this in 1983, and have revisited every so often since. I have to say that although it's a little dated now, it's still quite stylish, unique, and gripping. But without that incredible music score by Pino Donaggio, there's no way it would remain as significant to me as it does. It's perfect, especially during the final bookend shower sequence with Nancy Allen. And what a clever way to close off the movie. She made up the dream about the razor while meeting with Michael Caine. But then she ends up dreaming about the razor, and we even see the strap on the wall. I used to think it was a tacked on conclusion, but now I see that it was a fun yet crazily suspenseful way to end the film. He attempted the same with "Carrie" but that was for pure shock value. This time he really got it right. It's a classic as far as I'm concerned.

Dressed to Kill, 2010-02-25
While taking a shower, Kate Miller, a middle-aged, sexually frustrated New York housewife, has a rape fantasy while her husband stands at the sink shaving. Later that day, after complaining to her psychiatrist Dr. Robert Elliott about her husband's pathetic performance in bed, she meets a strange man at a museum and returns to his apartment where they continue an adulterous encounter that began in the taxicab. Before she leaves his apartment, she finds papers which certify that the man has a venereal disease. Panicked, Kate rushes into the elevator, but has to return to his apartment when she realizes she's forgotten her wedding ring. When the elevator doors open, she's brutally slashed to death by a tall blonde woman wearing dark glasses. Liz Blake, a high-priced call girl, is the only witness to the murder and she becomes the prime suspect and the murderess's next target. Liz is rescued from being killed by Kate's son Peter, who enlists the help of Liz to catch his mother's killer as Detective Marino who's in charge of the case is uncooperative in the investigation. This is pure Hitchcock with an 80's dash of lurid perversion, an affectionately told tale of lust and murder with plenty of twists, huge helpings of style, a stunning Pino Donaggio score, and a trashy, giallo-inspired plot. Let the virtuoso take you on a surreal, scary, erotically charged odyssey and you'll enjoy every frame of "Dressed To Kill".

Dressed to Kill Is An Incredibly Engrossing Movie, 2010-01-24
Dressed to Kill is one of my favorite thrillers of all time! Michael Caine delivers a superb performance. I had seen this film when I was younger in the movie theatres. It came out in 1980. It also stars the kid from the Steven King horror movie Christine. It is full of nail baiting suspense.

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