Dressed to Kill

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 the director's earlier films, and this one is chock-full of visual quotes, mostly cribbed from Vertigo and Psycho. But De Palma's indulgent depravity transcends simple mimicry, telling a tale smothered in thickly atmospheric obsessions with sex, dread, paranoia, and voyeurism, not to mention a heavy dose of Psycho-like psychobabble. Angie Dickinson plays Kate Miller—the killer's first target—a sexually unsatisfied, fortysomething wife who relays her fantasies to her psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Elliott (Michael Caine), before actually living one of them out after a celebrated cat-and-mouse sequence in a Manhattan art museum. The focus then switches to murder witness Liz Blake (De Palma's then-girlfriend Nancy Allen) and Miller's grieving whiz-kid son, Peter (Keith Gordon), who attempt to solve the murder while staying one step ahead (or so they think) of crude detective Marino (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, while the plot covers over any implausibility with well-timed morbid thrills and intoxicating suspense. Making a welcome Blu-ray debut in its unrated version, extras include two behind-the-scenes featurettes, a comparison of the three existing versions of the film (R-rated, unrated, and TV), a video appreciation by Gordon, and a photo gallery. Highly recommended. (J. Shannon)[Blu-ray/DVD Review—Aug. 11, 2015—Criterion, 105 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: 2 discs, $29.95; Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and Blu-ray, 1980's Dressed to Kill features an excellent transfer and an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition. Extras include a 2001 “making-of” featurette (44 min.), a new conversation between director Brian De Palma and filmmaker Noah Baumbach (20 min.), interviews with costar Nancy Allen (17 min.), producer George Litto (17 min.), composer Pino Donaggio (16 min.), photographic art director Stephen Sayadian (11 min.), body double Victoria Lynn Johnson (9 min.), and a 2001 interview with costar Keith Gordon (7 min.) as well as a “Defying Categories” profile of cinematographer Ralf Bode featuring filmmaker Michael Apted (11 min.), a “Slashing” segment on editing (10 min.), a “Version Comparison” between the different versions of the films (6 min.), storyboards, and trailers. Bottom line: De Palma's contemporary classic shines in this definitive Criterion edition.]