Dressed to Kill (1980)

Directed by Brian De Palma. With Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon. A mysterious blonde woman kills one of a psychiatrist's patients, and then goes after the high-class call girl who witnessed the murder.

Dressed to Kill is a 1980 American slasher erotic thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma and starring Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, and Keith Gordon.

In this stylish, violent thriller,an unhappy wife, Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson), meets a handsome man in a museum and goes to his apartment for a quick sexual encounter. As she leaves, she is brutally murdered. Kate's son, Peter (Keith Gordon) sets out to solve the murder aided by the call-girl Liz (Nancy Allen), who discovered his mother's body and got a glimpse of the murderer, a blond woman. Peter begins watching the office of Kate's psychiatrist, Dr. Elliott (Michael Caine), setting up a camera to record the comings and goings of his patients. When the suspect finally appears, Liz makes an appointment with Elliott in order to get a look at his appointment book. In Dressed to Kill director Brian De Palma deftly incorporates all the tricks and plot devices he learned from observing the masters of the genre, Alfred Hitchcock, Mario Bava and Dario Argento to great effect. The scene where Kate meets her lover in the museum is reminiscent of Vertigo. The murder of Kate in the elevator frightening, bloody and chillingly effective, is similar in tone to the shower scene in Hitchcock'sPsycho. Brian De Palma directs with great visual panache, and gets great performances from his cast, particularly Michael Caine who gives his usual fine performance in a surprising and difficult role. Dressed to Kill is a violent, gory, memorable thriller with many surprises and exciting plot twists.

When Alfred Hitchcock died, the obituaries puzzled over the fact

Brian De Palma ascended to the highest ranks of American suspense filmmaking with this virtuoso, explicit erotic thriller.

Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon, Dennis Franz, David Margulies, Ken Baker, Susanna Clemm, Brandon Maggart, Amalie Collier, Mary Davenport, Anneka Di Lorenzo, Ralf D. Bode, Brian De Palma, Gerald B. Greenberg, Fred C. Caruso, George Litto, Samuel Z. Arkoff: Movies & TV

A mysterious, tall, blonde woman wearing sunglasses murders one of a psychiatrist's patients, and now she's after the prostitute who witnessed it.

To view Dressed to Kill click here. Today it’s easy to take for granted what a big deal Dressed to Kill was when it opened in early 1980, but I think you could argue that no other film from director Brian De Palma is more important in his filmography. That’s not to say it’s necessarily his best […]

The Times

Dressed to Kill summary of box office results, charts and release information and related links.

Catching writer/director Brian De Palma’s controversial slasher shocker Dressed to Kill on opening weekend inlate July 1980

Overview of Dressed To Kill, 1980, directed by Brian De Palma, with Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, at Turner Classic Movies