Review of Dressed to Kill

Introduction

Dressed to Kill is another suspense-thriller from Brian De Palma, lifelong Hitchcock devotee.

When Dr. Robert Elliott (Michael Caine), a therapist, discovers one of his patients (Angie Dickinson) has been murdered and a threatening message is left on his answerphone, he believes he knows the killer’s identity – one of his own patients, a confused transsexual. Whilst he rushes to confirm his suspicions, the victim’s son and a prostitute who witnessed the crime (Nancy Allen) start investigations of their own. Can they find the killer before he finds them?

Video

It is difficult to determine exactly how good the transfer is, as De Palma filmed a lot of the film through filters to achieve a dream-like soft-focus look. However, even taking this into consideration, the picture still lacks detail in a number of scenes, where visible grain is evident. It also seems like there is significant damage to the print, with scratches and marks present. Overall, not a bad transfer – but a better job could have been done in the restoration process.

Audio

The soundtrack showcase’s the film’s excellent score in Dolby 5.1. Dressed to Kill relies very much on the music to build tension, so it’s mostly the front speakers at work throughout the film. However, when the rear speakers are called upon, such as in the thunderstorm sequence at the climax of the movie, they are used very well.

Features

Only the theatrical trailer in included on this disc – it seems MGM either didn’t have the rights or didn’t want to make the effort to include all the extras that were on its Region 1 version.

Conclusion

Dressed to Kill has been a cult favourite of many for some time now, but also a very controversial release due to the sexual explicitness of a mainstream release by a major film studio – and so has an equal amount of critics as fans. However, if I were to criticise this film, I would not concentrate on the supposed mysoginistic theme to it, but instead fundamental flaws in its structure.

Dressed to Kill appears to be – much like the villain of the piece – a very confused animal. For the first 30mins or so, it seems to be a psychological portrait of a bored housewife, and then suddenly shifts into a slasher movie, with her death. Then it turns into a detective story, with the victim’s son using all possible means to discover who the killer is, before finally moving into thriller mode.

Along with the problems with the film’s structure, there are also the typical ‘De Palma-isms’ that have won him legions of fans, yet also people who hate his directing style. Whilst it may work in films such as The Untouchables or Carrie, here it is obvious to see this film is way over-directed to a self-indulgent degree. Nancy Allen is, as usual, terrible – only getting the job for being De Palma’s wife. Even the sex scenes are cold and fail to convey any erotic meaning, coming across as cheap porn as opposed to creating any Hitchcockian sexual tension. One of my least favourite De Palma films.

However, if you are one of those who adores Dressed to Kill, I suggest going for the feature-packed Region 1 Special Edition, much superior to this version, and probably available cheaper too.