Review of Dressed to Kill (1980) by Shaun B — 16 Jun 2010

A gothic melodrama which turns into a slasher film, Brian DePalma delivers a barking mad psycho-thriller, one which delight fans of the slasher genre, not to mention fans of a certain Police Woman.

Angie Dickinson is a very bored and sensuous middle-aged woman. As the heroine at the start, she is seen in various states of undress, including a shower scene which highlights her vacant sense of daydreaming, as she imagines herself the victim of a would-be rapist.

Touching scenes with her son offer a more sympathetic side to this woman, as does her brief exchange with her psychiatrist (Michael Caine). But when he rejects her advances, our doleful heroine seeks solace in an art gallery.

When a mystery man starts to pursue her through the gallery, a game of cat-and-mouse develops. As the camera tracks her, a radiant looking Angie is stalked from end of the gallery to the other, her curiosity giving way to alarm, before she at last emerges into the outdoors, and finds a surprise waiting for her.

Seduced into a taxi, Dickinson then shows how comic she can be. As her panties are pulled off in full view of the cab driver - hardly a dignified scene for her - she responds by having an orgasm so loud it drowns out the sound of the surrounding car horns. Priceless.

Waking later in the man's apartment, she find her adultery may have cost her far more than a guilty secret. It seems her lover may be carrying VD. Struggling to get dressed in the dark, before realising her panties have been left in the cab, she then remembers her wedding ring is back in the mystery man's bed. Whoops.

As she makes her way back up to his apartment in the lift, the doors open, only to reveal a nightmare as a female vision in black leather charges into the lift, carrying a knife and suddenly making a lost wedding ring and no panties seem like not such a big deal after all.

The psycho-thriller plunges into action from here, and while enjoyable, it is never quite as engaging as the first forty minutes. For this, Angie Dickinson deserves credit, creating the most sympathetic and appealling character in a film, which while never less than entertaining, never quite recovers its composure after its violent lurch into slasher territory.