Dressed to kill

is also a shit movie.

I''ll *NEVER* stop making movies about maiming and killing women!
Brian "I hate women and like cutting them to ribbons" De Palma
But sooooo much better than Bab''s version of "A Star Is Born."%0D\ %0D
The Philadelphia Museum sequence in this film is one of the most elegantly filmed and choreographed scenes in any thriller since Hitchcock.\ \ You have bad taste, OP. DePalma made some stinkers but this is certainly not one of them.\ \ You probably watched it on TV, censored and in pan & scan. The Director''s Cut DVD is so much better. This movie is about mood, it''s ruined on TV.\ \ Between this, SCARFACE, CARRIE and MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE DePalma has more movies that will stand the test of time than most directors, love him or hate him. THE UNTOUCHABLES is right up there, too.
Nancy Allen''s Settlement
What R3 said. I must have watched the film a dozen times when I was a teenager (I had a VHS copy, non censored). The film taught me a lot about film language. \ \ BLOW OUT is another great DePalma film.
Angie Dickinson was never better.
Best performance in Dressed to Kill: The little girl in the elevator.
This is a great movie, I never get tired of watching it. There are some very creepy, intense moments in it. %0D\ %0D\ I always think that the little girl that R6 is talking about senses that Angie''s about to die and that''s why she''s staring. Keith Gordon was cute too.
Another vote for Blow Out too. Travolta was good in this and so was Lithgow. This is one of those overlooked and underrated movies.
Angie Dickinson''s tits were never better.
Melanie Griffith in Body Double
It''s an OK film. It''s no MAME.
Lucy B.
Dressed to Kill is a great film. It really captures the seediness of late 1970s New York.
I, too, remember it fondly. Guess this thread isn''t working out for you, OP.
I remember a Dickinson interview about the scene where she gets fucked in the cab. She said the camera was hidden and all anyone outside could see was that Angie Dickinson was fucking some guy in public. She said there were lots of catcalls and wolf whistles.
R7, I''ve heard other people say that as well. I thought she understood the look of guilt on Angie''s face. A bad girl knows the look of another bad girl.
I saw it during its initial release. Aside from the great museum sequence, it sucked. (However, it didn''t rise to the level of suckitude that "Body Double" achieved.)%0D\ %0D\ I sort of loved "The Fury," which is generally reviled.
ghost of pauline kael''s leopard skin hat
it is a shitty movie
and so was Bonfire of the Vanities
The slashing scene in the elevator was one of the most terrifying in history. Totally unexpected, brutal, all that blood on Angie''s white outfit.%0D\ %0D\ I loved "Sisters" too. It''s my favorite genre: slick thriller.
I find his movies lifeless. They are technically proficient but I never feel anything for the characters. He knows the words and notes but not the music, if you know what I mean.
Anige Dickinson used a body double for the shower scene and the sex scene that follows right after it.
The closing scene in Blow Out where Travolta''s listening to the scream knowing it''s his dying girlfriend''s is chilling.
They meet at the Met, not at the Philadelphia MFA! My God!
Tom Hoving
R21, do some research. Yes, in the MOVIE it''s the Met, but it was filmed in the Philly MOA. \ \ RAISING CAIN is also an excellent, underrated DePalma thriller with one of the most terrifying endings ever (even though it was ripped off from TENEBRAE).
Amy Irving''s Settlement
My first job was as an usher at a movie theater and we knew when Carrie was over because of the audience screaming during the end dream sequence.
I hope they make a second part, "Undressed to Live" , with Taylor Lautner.
I thought the entire movie was filmed in Philadelphia, and it was passed off as being in Manhattan.
Nancy Allen was so pretty.
http://media.photobucket.com/image/nancy allen/harrymoseby/dressed0.jpg
I was Miss Angie Dickinson''s body double in Dressed To Kill.
Blanche Deveraux
I''m with R6 on this - except I''d also add to his list Sisters, Blow Up and the "Be Black Baby" sequence of Hi Mom.%0D\ %0D\ Dress to Kill is one of the few movies I enjoyed so much when it came out that I went to see it again a few weeks later.%0D\ %0D\ David Denby''s review below nails it.
http://books.google.com/books?id=0OUCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq="dressed to kill" "david denby" depalma&source=bl&ots=spCQbf_YzU&sig=8qlXnAYIgD6IoWhwEjnQG3vzG78&hl=en&ei=hGOETOvtAsGB8gb66uCmAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBoQ6AEw
Loved Sisters, too.\ \ Very surreal.
I meant to say R3 above not 6.
R28
The whole business at the end was like a teenage comic book writer''s idea of a Hitchcockian twist. Just ludicrous and lame.
I thought "Dressed to Kill" was wildly over-praised.
Bosely Crowder
Bump.
[quote]The closing scene in Blow Out where Travolta''s listening to the scream knowing it''s his dying girlfriend''s is chilling.%0D\ %0D\ I couldn''t understand what drove him to do that, it''s so sick and twisted. He must''ve really lost it completely when he couldn''t save her.%0D\ %0D\ Michael Caine scared me in DTK and Dennis Franz was a hoot.
The elevator scene--God, I can never watch that again. The part where the killer *slowly* slices her face with the straight razor--Jesus!
"Let''s cut the bullshit Miss Blake, you''re a fucking whore."
Dennis Franz
Phantom of the Paradise!
I loved "Dressed to Kill" and I never get tired of watching it. Nancy Allen was gorgeous!
My favourite NY movie after Cruising. \ \ The museum sequence of course, but also the wonderful opening sequence. I remember the audience ''ooing'' at the groovy stripped down digital clock by the bedside. \ \ Dickinson never looked better, and wasn''t pleased when news of the body double leaked out. I can remember her on Parkinson in the UK when the movie came out pulling the reserved diva act, but then Billy Connelly came on and said he was ''about as popular as a fart in a space suit''. Being unused to UK TV she couldn''t believe someone had said that on air, and completely lost the fake act with her shock and suppressed laughter. It was a great moment.
I also love the movie, have seen it countless times. It is both scary and sad.%0D\ %0D\ I remember my parents seeing it at the movies and coming home somehow shocked with it. I only saw it some years later and became sort of fascinated with it.
One of my favorite movies of all time. Such a demented, twisted pastiche of giallo films, soft core porn, etc. \ \ And the music is amazing. I have Pino Donaggio''s score (along with some of his others) on my ipod. Listen to parts of it at least once a week.
Is there any truth to the rumor that a host of Hollywood legends including Davis, Hepburn and Ball were offered the Dickinson part? I would love to see what Bette Davis would''ve done with that role.
It''s always a little freaky for me to watch that scene near the end of Liz and Peter having lunch or whatever at Windows on the World in the Twin Towers considering what the future held for it.
What do you DLers think of ''Obsession''?
I''ve never seen it
I enjoyed "The Fan" much more than "Dressed to Kill" because NO ONE tops Miss Lauren Bacall when it comes to slasher movies.
R45, 3 words: "Hearts, Not Diamonds"
Sally Ross
Anyone know any good movies of this type?I kind of remember scenes from these late night movies but forget the titles.
Enjoyed it R44, but it is seriously flawed. You can see everything coming.
Why did Angie Dickinson used a body double for Dressed to Kill?
"What do you DLers think of ''Obsession''?"\ \ don''t listen to anyone who says it''s a cheap rip-off of Vertigo. Sure, it clearly is inspired by that movie to some degree. But it definitely stands on its own two feet. It is lush, gorgeously shot, HUGELY gothic with a pretty amazing, if not unhinged, score by Bernard Herrmann, his last before Taxi Driver. I own the vinyl and I treasure it. \ \ I highly highly recommend that you check it out.
r41
DTK is one of my all-time favorites: eye candy from start to finish. Many of you are too young to remember that the movie caused a sensation when it came out. It was hugely popular at the box office, even though feminists reviled it and set up pickets lines outside theaters where it was playing.
The museum sequence is much better than the rest. In her best moments Angie Dickinson comes across like an American Sophia Loren.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.citizencaine.org/filler/dressed-to-kill.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.citizencaine.org/films/dressed-to-kill.shtml&h=135&w=135&sz=6&tbnid=AFuJe_HC4oibaM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=92&prev=/images?q=angie dickinson dres
Now I gotta see Obsession! Sounds like my kind of movie.
OP''s wrong, it''s one of DePalma''s best and the new-ish director''s cut RULES! Loved it and all the extras. Much better than the lame, rather dull (except for a few shock scenes) "The Fury." "Body Double" is also fun.
Barkline Vagine
R51, when I saw the movie for the first time (in a theater), two women got up and stomped out during the shower sequence. And I have to say that I found that part of the movie shocking at first since it comes as close to female masturbation as possible without the woman inserting her finger into her vagina.
Sizzlean
Will someone please, PLEASE, explain to me what is so tantalizing about the museum scene. I know it may be something I just don''t "get", but I find it to be a too long bore and a scene where I always find the time to scratch my ass.
Gene Schnitzel
Bump.
r53\ \ here are the opening credits to Obsession (no spoilers). definitely gives you a sense of the score and the overall vibe of the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBu-AzFSrA4&feature=related
R58 OBSESSION is one of the only DePalma movies not readily available for purchase in the US. The ones that you can buy used on Amazon are usually ridiculously expensive. Anyone have a DL link?
\ "OBSESSION is one of the only DePalma movies not readily available for purchase in the US."\ \ It''s available on Netflix. Streaming too.
I never said it wasn''t, R60. I said it wasn''t available for PURCHASE, which it isn''t. Some people prefer to own things forever, you know.
Oy, Body Double! That movie was stinkeroo from the get-go, but when Frankie Goes To Hollywood showed up, I remember the audience collectively groaning, like, "Is he (DePalma) kidding?!"
[quote]Enjoyed it [R44], but it is seriously flawed. You can see everything coming. For me, the joy of many of DePalma's films, and the films of other great directors, is in the HOW - how they unfold events on the screen. That is the thrill. That is the reason I can re-watch great films. And DePalma, in particular, liked to rework familiar themes. But his film language is masterful. And even if a film as a whole doesn't quite work there's always a thrilling sequence of two in it (I'd say the same thing about Scorsese). That's good enough for me, most of the time. [quote]Will someone please, PLEASE, explain to me what is so tantalizing about the museum scene. When something is told in a way that's unique to that particular form of expression, that's what makes it good. The way DePalma filmed that sequence cannot be described in a book, not in the same way. In a book, it would not be possible to control our reactions so precisely in time the way the camera and the editing do it in the museum sequence. It's an incredibly complex scene, psychologically, yet it manages to show EXACTLY what Dickinson's character is thinking and feeling WITHOUT WORDS. What adds to its magnificence is the fact that it is an hommage to Vertigo (the scenes of Kim Novak in the museum). Any fans of FEMME FATALE? It's another one of DePalmas rather underappreciated films.
Hated Femme Fatale and Raising Cain - both terrible.
barkley
"It may be worth a million dollars someday. More if the artist dies, of course."
LOVE Dressed to Kill and The Fury. He made some really crappy movies but a lot of really good ones: Carrie, Phantom of the Paradise, Blow Out, The Untouchables.\ \ \ Tell me OP, exactly, why you think DTK sucks?
Keith Gordon as Angie dickinson and that male model''s son? Uhhh, not genetically possible.
Saw Nancy Allen in a featurette for the CARRIE DVD and she looks absolutely gorgeous. She seems so sweet and warm, I guess that''s helped her along in the aging process. If she''s had any work done it''s been subtle.
Dickionson''s character isn''t getting fucked in the cab he''s going DOWN on her, there''s a difference. It''s established that all her handsome husband does with her is pound away in missionary until he''s satisfied and then he rolls over.
She looks good in the "Dressed" extras, too. Keith Gordon is hot, unfortunately married, but love hairy jew boys. Nancy took a turn for the worse with the short ''do in "Robocop."
"Keith Gordon as Angie dickinson and that male model''s son? Uhhh, not genetically possible."\ \ That''s because the guy is his stepfather. \ \ "no, no, no, no - he''s not my father! My father died in Vietnam!"
Keith Gordon, glaring at you while being questioned
R58, thanks for posting the Obsession clip. I''m very intrigued by this movie and I just remember after seeing the stars that I''d seen others on DL talking about it and I just never got around to hunting it down.%0D\ %0D\ I don''t know why, but I''ve always had a thing for Keith Gordon, maybe it''s his slightly crossed eyes! Anyway, he was hot in a nerdy/dorky way or something. And I love his hunky transformation in Christine.
Yeah, but R71, he''s particularly ludicrous as Angie Dickinson''s son.
I remember seeing an "edited for TV" version of it and thinking, wow, this is actually better.
R63. I''m a huge fan of Femme Fatale. It''s an ingenious puzzle--you really have to pay attention to all of the details in it--and it''s gorgeous.
It''s just so listless - you''re right, I see real technique in the making, but the execution just comes off so sterile.
Couldn''t get into "Femme" - it just reeked of desperation and a filmmaker past his prime, same with "Raising Cain."
sadly, I agree with r77. DePalma is one of my favorite directors since I was a kid, but his movies for the past 20 years have been pretty horrible.
Does anyone else think Keith Gordon has had the homosex where the man goes up into the man?
Oh my God, R45--I thought I was the only one who remembered "The Fan." Remember the letter the psycho fan sent Hutton''s character after killing her assistant? \ \ "Dear Bitch, see how ''inaccessible'' you really are? Have you ever been fucked with a meat cleaver?" Scared the crap out of me at the time.
OK, apologies to those that hate older threads being bumped, but I'm doing it for a valid reason. I just watched this movie and quickly had to search DL because I was sure there would be a thread here to answer my question. Happily I wasn't disappointed. First off, this was the first time I've seen the film in widescreen and unedited. It was an entirely different experience. My question was - it seems like Angie Dickinson wouldn't be the kind of star that would actually show her furry snatch on film, and based on the way it's edited, it feels like they are inserting a body double. So my question was pretty much answered, but reading through the posts here has confirmed what I suspected. I do wonder though why she would be concerned that people not know she wasn't doing the full frontal herself. Was it a significant story when that news came out? Maybe her body isn't so perfect but she wanted everyone to think that everything was as tight as it looks in the movie.
Warren Lockman (Wall Street Athletic Club member)
I thought it was always public that she didn't do the nudity...it was a homage to Hitchcock so much like Janet Leigh had a double so did Angie. Plus it is so obvious since the age/quality of the bodies change from shot to shot in the film.
It was odd that De Palma so readily revealed that Angie had a body double. He never minded shocking audiences, and it was shocking that Angie would be nekkid in a mainstream movie when, to most people, she was Sgt. Pepper Anderson, POLICE WOMAN. She had done nudity in BIG BAD MAMA, but that was a low budget, drive-in flick. I remember her quote at the time the body doubling was revealed, "let them think it's Tahiti--even if it is Burbank."
The first 45 minutes hour is terrific then it sort of goes down hill..De Palma is very hit or miss. Loved Sisters,Carrie and Scarface, Femme Fatale is really underrated.
Met Angie a few years ago and we talked about this film and her elevator scene. She laughed and said "Ohhh it's scary and I knew what was going to happen!"
It is a shitty movie. I was surprised when I heard some people claiming it was good.
The network TV premiere for this followed the whole museum/taxi cab sequence with a commercial for Coach gloves. Brilliant!
R42, Bette Davis was 72 and Hepburn was 73 when "DTK" was released. I guess DePalma decided to go with a straight-ahead thriller rather than science fiction.
Maude Chardin
[quote]She laughed and said "Ohhh it's scary and I knew what was going to happen! Michael Caine in that wig and glasses would scare anyone, that movie still creeps me out.
I'd also add PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE to the outstanding DePalma catalogue.
R85, more about meeting Angie, please. How did she look?
Dickie%20Angenson
DTK was my favorite Brian DePalma movie until I saw Obsession--it's so odd and even creepy in a way, but the locales are beautiful, Cliff Robertson, John Lithgow and Genvieve Bujold give wonderful performances and the soundtrack is breathtaking. Still love DTK and Blow Out (I just watched it last night) too.
R92, you should read John Lithgow's biography - he's got a whole chapter about how hard it was to work with Robertson. (Doesn't name him but it's obvious which actor & movie he's referring to.)
Oh wow, I wonder what the problem was R93, well anyway, the tension didn't show up in their scenes together except when the script called for it.
R92
Blanche Devereaux was Miss Angie Dickinson's body double in this.
R95, if there's one thing I hate, it's an asshole who's too lazy to read a thread. Love, R27.
Frida Claxton
DePalma is a masterful visual stylist but his films are sleazy and he seems to have no idea how to direct actors. All of Nancy Allen's dreadful performances, the awful mugging and laboured comedy in the Bonfire of the Vanities... on the other hand I just watched Cliff Robertson in Obsession and DePalma could barely coax an expression out of his stony face.
Oh, blow it out your tubenburbles, R96!
I wonder why DePalma has never directed a full-on horror film since Carrie? Hitchcock had his Psycho, after all.
Just finished watching the movie again, thanks to you bitches. Amazing how well it has held up despite its limitations (biggest limitation being Nancy Allen's acting which sucks more than a hooker). The Hitchcock homage/rip-off that would soon become tedious in De Palma's oeuvre works perfectly here, and a few scenes are genuinely chilling (the elevator murder natch, the metro chase and the whole nightmarish ending sequence.)
r99: Hitchcock had his Psycho and De Palma tried to have Hitchcock's Psycho, which is why we now have Dressed To Kill.
Yes, that's right, DTK does have some Psycho touches in it - the end when the psychiatrists explains Dr. Elliot/Bobbie's psychosis.
De Palma's "Body Double", which I created a thread about on DL last month, is full of Hitchcokian nods as well.
Was Napolean really also a baker?
Angie%27s%20Isotoners
Napoléon avait cinq cents soldats. Napoléon avait cinq cents soldats. Napoléon avait cinq cents soldats
Great sequences in it. The scene in the museum is probably the best evocation of what cruising is like in any movie I've ever seen. And the scene in the police station with the various people spying on each other through glass is also amazing. And I don't think there's ever been as good a use of splitscreen (or of Ange Dickinson). On the other hand, the nerdy boy who is the central protagonist is dreadful, and the ending is obviously going the same way CARRIE does (I've never met anyone who was fooled by it if he or she had seen CARRIE beforehand and knew it was by the same director).
I like the elevator ride (before the slashing) where the little girl gets on and stares at her the whole time until she and her mother get off. She makes her feel like such a dirty whore, even though the little girl knows nothing. And then she still has to ride the elevator back up to retrieve her wedding ring from her syphilitic trick's apartment.
amazing
http://youtu.be/QM-ZRQALINc
r1...you say that like it is a bad thing? What's up with that?
Keith Gordon's lips are a thing of beauty.
As weird as it may sound, my first memory of this movie is watching it with my parents when I was 13 or 14. I remember that the scene where she finds out that the guy she has just slept with has an STD spooked me out more than her getting killed shortly afterwards.
me to r111!!
I was also disturbed by Angie Dickinson's cellulite.
Laughed at the part when she realizes she lost her panties in the taxi, complete with a visual image.
R111, that kid showed up in a few commercials, still staring when she shouldn't have been.
The movie is pure camp from beginning to finish. Tremendous fun at that level. However, anyone who tries to say this is a great film is completely without taste. It is a great camp film. Period.
Horrid film. After watching it it made me realize what a hack De Palma was. The film contains one of the biggest plot-holes of ALL time: when Dickinson goes back to the man's apartment, when the elevator doors open, there's tranny Michael Caines with razor. How could tranny Caine have guessed that Dickinson would show up and also show up alone in the elevator. This is not the only plot-hole. And Nancy Allen is a terrible actress.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/mv-uFbR/dressed_to_kill_1980_film_murder_on_an_elevator/
r117, Tranny Caine would have been following Angie the whole day it seems - or at least from the museum to the trick's apartment building. Most of that tailing was unseen by us save for the flash of picking up her Isotoner on the museum steps. But we can assume that by following her he knew what floor and which apartment she was in. So either he camped out somewhere in the hallway or stairwell waiting to see her leave the apartment or maybe he just waited in the lobby. (Waiting in the lobby would require less running in this scenario I'm thinking up, but either location is possible). When the elevator carrying Angie along the mother & child hits the lobby and Angie stays in the car rather than getting out - it would be safe to assume she was heading back up to her new STD-ridden fuck buddy's apartment for something. So Tranny Caine had to hustle up the stairwell to greet the elevator as the doors opened. That might be a stretch, but it's possible. I used to race the elevators up in my old building and I could always beat them for at least 5 flights - beyond that I would only routinely beat a slow mover. So it's possible. Only mildly far-fetched. Enough at least that I wouldn't call it one of the biggest plot holes of all time. And of course he could assume that she'd be the only one in the car because he saw that nobody boarded with her in the lobby. Most of the time people are only going up in an apartment elevator if they've gotten on at the ground floor, which of course he would have seen. Even if someone had gotten on while she was riding it back up, he could have aborted his plan when the doors opened.
I agree with every critical comment here. Not to the point that I don't think it's interesting enough to see once, but does it hold up to repeat viewings? No, it never did for me.
It is nice to see a widescreen version of the movie after only having known the TV edited version. In addition to the drama of the scene like the museum walk and the subway way, De Palma does like to cram some fun stuff in the frame. There is actually a pearl clutching scene - at least I think she's wearing pearls, it's hard to tell. And I'd never seen it previously because the pan-and-scan cuts at least part of it out. After the whole mystery is revealed at the police station, Keith Gordon and Nancy Allen have a meal at a nice restaurant. While she's explaining transsexuality to him and how to transition, there are some ladies who lunch sitting at a table behind him. Without the widescreen, you can't see how appalled the one nosy lady as Nancy Allen explains a penectomy and vaginoplasty. Ol' girl absolutely clutches her necklace and later wipes her face with a tissue. She's a true DLer.
Dickinson%27s%20screaming%20taxi%20orgasm
Love DTK and Blow Out. And I liked a lot of Body Double too. Hated Bonfire of the Vanities, Raising Cain and everything after the opening sequence of Femme Fatale. The Vietnam movie with Sean Penn had some merit, and I always want to like Snake Eyes, but it's a bit of a mess. Why does he hate women so much?
I remember when "Dressed to Kill" came out. It did cause quite a bit of talk. I've never had much feeling or regard for De Palma's work. It's not just how violently he hates women, he actually seems to hate everyone. There's a coldness to all of his characters. De Palma's shot some beautiful stuff but I just don't think of him as a great director like his contemporaries Coppola and Scorsese. If you can't "do" people as a director, you're hamstrung no matter what else you do well.
I agree with R122's assessment. In many ways, these are the same reasons why David Fincher's work leaves me cold.
Lucille Ball would have been an interesting choice for the Michael Caine part, don't you think?
Yes r124, then it'd at least be a camp classic. Maybe it could be remade with Catherine O'hara doing her SCTV imitation of Lucy. She did a great old shriveled 80s-era Lucy.
[quote]I like the elevator ride (before the slashing) where the little girl gets on and stares at her the whole time until she and her mother get off. I always felt that girl was staring because she sensed something bad was going to happen to Kate Miller. The final scene with Nancy Allen in the shower and Michael Caine wearing that nurses uniform outside the bathroom door is very creepy. [quote]Keith Gordon's lips are a thing of beauty. So are his slightly crossed eyes.
[quote] Great sequences in it. The scene in the museum is probably the best evocation of what cruising is like in any movie I've ever seen. Oddly enough, this sequence was taken from a scene De Palma had planned when he was attached to the movie Cruising. De Palma's early comedy was brilliant when it was satirical - the "Be Black Baby" sequence from Hi,Mom! is one of the best things he's done. But Bonfire of the Vanities was just appalling in how off the tone was in close to every scene. I don't think he hates women or anyone. Having them as the victim doesn't equate to hating them. Rebecca Romijn's character in Femme Fatale is extremely in charge of her own sexuality and in control in the situations presented.
Well, we'll always have PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE.
True, Phantom of the Paradise is glorious. For a straight guy De Palma has a beautiful camp sensibility. The ending of The Fury is testament to it.