Movie Notes: Dressed To Kill

September 12th, 2008

= 3 stars

Starring Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Michael Caine
Directed by Brian De Palma

Synopsis

Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) complains to psychiatrist Dr. Elliott (Michael Caine) about her unsatisfying sex life. At a museum she runs into an mysterious man who sets a murder in motion, of which prostitute Liz (Nancy Allen) is the sole witness.

The Good

• Amusing direction — the suspenseful museum stalking scene has no dialogue, and a later scene with a stopwatch directing cuts is quite witty.
• One interesting scene where Detective Marino (Denis Franz) questions Eliot (Michael Caine) just because of the contrasting accents.

The Bad

• Many scenes are Hitchcock rip-offs (the museum intro [Vertigo], the initial shower scene, and killing off an actress well before the real plot of the movie gets underway [Psycho]). Heck, now that I think about it, the whole plot is a lift of Psycho, as if the last scene of Norman Bates in woman’s clothing inspired the question “what if he was a transsexual?” Lastly, Hitchcock was never so overt and graphically sexual.
• Several unintentionally funny moments, mostly due to characters doing inane things to progress the plot. Kate drops a glove, gets into a cab with a complete stranger, and forgets her wedding ring. At a murder scene, Liz picks up the weapon and runs around with it. And the entire last bit in a prison is highly WTF.
• The scrawny whiz kid — sporting shaggy black hair and round glasses — resembles Harry Potter. No way to have predicted that back in 1980, but still.

Conclusion

Tough movie to rate. I’d strongly recommend people to see the litany of Hitchcock classics (Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window, Notorious, North by Northwest) before seeing this flick. That said, when the plot falters, you can still be amused by De Palma’s amusing direction and seeing a few notable actors as they appeared in 1980. Overall, it’s a decent rental.

IMDB: Dressed To Kill
Wikipedia: Dressed To Kill
Rotten Tomatoes: Dressed To Kill