Alamo Drafthouse

Weird Wednesday

October 22, 2008

Dressed to Kill

(Brian De Palma, 1980) 

“If this film succeeds, killing women may become the greatest turn-on of the Eighties!” - Women Against Pornography leaflet, 1980.

When Dressed to Kill came out it created a firestorm of controversy. Womens’ groups marched on theaters, gay rights groups protested, reviewers savaged it as an unnecessarily violent rip-off of all of Hitchcock’s best ideas. They were all wrong. Dressed to Kill is one of the funniest, cleverest essays on the art of the suspense film, and a superior example of the form. It’s the only American giallo thriller and it stands with the best work of Argento, Bava, Lenzi and Sergio Martino. The film was a huge hit and shot its vile seed deep into the brains of millions of people in theaters throughout America and later as a late night staple on pay cable. Angie Dickinson, Michael Caine, Nancy Allen and especially Keith Gordon (even though he looks like Harry Potter) are all fantastic but the spotlight is on writer/director Brian De Palma. He was very busy throughout the ‘70s and by the time he made Dressed to Kill his reflexes and instincts were tuned up tighter than a drum. Like a kinky behaviorist, he runs the viewer through a sleazy maze of sex and death while constantly exploiting the audience’s sophisticated cinema-consciousness. Think you’re smart? De Palma’s smarter. He virtuosically demonstrates 37 positions of mind-fucking before letting you have your cigarette. It’s a true classic, and an unmissable big screen event. (Lars)