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Dressed to Kill (1980)
After my recent viewing of the Brian De Palma documentary, I was motivated to finally sit down and watch 1980's Dressed to Kill, a supremely stylish erotic thriller that works not because of the story, but because of the way it's told, much like De Palma's cinematic mentor, Alfred Hitchcock.
Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) is a sexually frustrated housewife who cruises a stranger in a museum and has sex with him in a cab and then at his home. She's almost home when she realizes she left her wedding ring at the stranger's apartment but on her way back, she is brutally slashed to death with a razor by a blonde in a dark coat.
A pretty young hooker (Nancy Allen) finds Kate on the elevator covered in blood and sees the killer in the reflection of the mirror in the elevator. The detective investigating the murder (Dennis Franz) is led to believe that the killer is the patient of a prominent shrink (Michael Caine) while the hooker and Kate's teenage son (Keith Gordon) work together to figure out who killed Kate.
Even anyone who didn't know anything about De Palma's directorial style can see the Hitchcock influence everywhere in the crafting of this story. I love De Palma's preference in letting his camera tell the story rather than dialogue. There are long stretches of this film that have no dialogue but still rivet the viewer to the screen because the camera work is so slow and deliberate the viewer is afraid there is something they're going to miss. That steady cam that follows Angie Dickinson in the museum is just brilliantly utilized and actually keeps the viewer on their toes, making the viewer think something's going to happen that really doesn't
With his stunning camera work and Pino Donnagio's music, there's a whole lot of stylish filmmaking going on here and it has to be stylish because the story is nothing special that the viewer pretty much figures out about halfway through. He even borrows from himself here...there is a definite Carrie influence here as well. But De Palma is the whole show here and this Hitchcock homage is a winner.
After my recent viewing of the Brian De Palma documentary, I was motivated to finally sit down and watch 1980's Dressed to Kill, a supremely stylish erotic thriller that works not because of the story, but because of the way it's told, much like De Palma's cinematic mentor, Alfred Hitchcock.
Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) is a sexually frustrated housewife who cruises a stranger in a museum and has sex with him in a cab and then at his home. She's almost home when she realizes she left her wedding ring at the stranger's apartment but on her way back, she is brutally slashed to death with a razor by a blonde in a dark coat.
A pretty young hooker (Nancy Allen) finds Kate on the elevator covered in blood and sees the killer in the reflection of the mirror in the elevator. The detective investigating the murder (Dennis Franz) is led to believe that the killer is the patient of a prominent shrink (Michael Caine) while the hooker and Kate's teenage son (Keith Gordon) work together to figure out who killed Kate.
Even anyone who didn't know anything about De Palma's directorial style can see the Hitchcock influence everywhere in the crafting of this story. I love De Palma's preference in letting his camera tell the story rather than dialogue. There are long stretches of this film that have no dialogue but still rivet the viewer to the screen because the camera work is so slow and deliberate the viewer is afraid there is something they're going to miss. That steady cam that follows Angie Dickinson in the museum is just brilliantly utilized and actually keeps the viewer on their toes, making the viewer think something's going to happen that really doesn't
With his stunning camera work and Pino Donnagio's music, there's a whole lot of stylish filmmaking going on here and it has to be stylish because the story is nothing special that the viewer pretty much figures out about halfway through. He even borrows from himself here...there is a definite Carrie influence here as well. But De Palma is the whole show here and this Hitchcock homage is a winner.