Review of Dressed to Kill (1980) by J.b. R — 13 Aug 2011
Bobbi: Don't make me be a bad girl again! .
"The Latest Fashion in Murder".
Dressed To Kill is a suspenseful, captivating and interesting thriller from "Master of the Macabre," Brian DePalma. The film is extremely violent and sexually graphic. At the time of it's release, it sparked a lot of controversy from women, gays and some critics. Today, it doesn't seem all that controversial, but Psycho was once "controversial" too, so what are you going to do.
The film is extremely well-done and has many noteworthy scenes. The art gallery scene where this no dialogue for probably between 5-10 minutes is remarkable and possibly my favorite scene in the entire film. Then there's the ending which is very DePalma. Remember the ending to Carrie. We think it's over and then DePalma says Boo! one last time. .
If I wanted to gripe about something in Dressed To Kill it would have to be that the acting is a little spotty in places; mostly from Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon and Dennis Franz. Even though these actors didn't give amazing performances by any stretch of the imagination; they don't really take too much away from the film. DePalma's direction is as close to flawless as any human can get. Michael Caine and Angie Dickinson are really good in my opinion; although I may be a little biased on Caine's behalf since he is one of my favorite actors. The plot is basically a murder-mystery. A blonde woman has stalked and killed one woman and is trying to kill a witness to the murder. I wasn't all that surprised when we find out who's behind it all. It was fairly obvious, but I didn't really care about being fooled during this movie. It was just a fun ride and I loved every minute of it. .
I haven't seen every DePalma film(I'm working on it), but of the ones I have seen this probably comes in my top 3 of his works with Casualties of War and Scarface. DePalma definitely deserves praise as a director even if his career has gotten a little bumpy. The guy has crafted some pretty amazing films.
This review of Dressed to Kill (1980) was written by J.b. R on 13 Aug 2011.
Dressed to Kill has generally received positive reviews.
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