The Latest Fashion In Murder

Every Nightmare Has A Beginning...This One Never Ends

Brian De Palma Master Of The Macabre, Invites You To A Showing Of The Latest Fashion... .....In Murder


One of Brian De Palma's most divisive films, Dressed to Kill is a spine-chilling Alfred Hitchcock update for the late 1970s. Sexually frustrated wife and mother Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) visits her New York psychiatrist, Dr. Elliott (Michael Caine), to complain about her unfulfilling erotic life. When she then goes to meet her husband at a museum, she meets an anonymous man whom she follows out to a cab. After an afternoon of satisfying sex, Kate discovers that the man has a venereal disease, but that information becomes a moot point when a razor-wielding blonde woman slashes Kate to ribbons in the elevator of the man's building. Blonde prostitute Liz (Nancy Allen), who caught a glimpse of the murderer, becomes both the prime suspect and the killer's next target. With the police less than willing to believe her story, Liz joins forces with Kate's son Peter (Keith Gordon) to get the psychopath themselves.


Dressed to Kill is a 1980 erotic crime thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma and starring Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, (in a Best Actress Saturn Award-winning performance), Nancy Allen (in a Golden Globe-nominated performance) and Keith Gordon. It centers on the murder of a housewife and an investigation involving a young prostitute who witnessed the murder, the victim’s teenaged son and her psychiatrist. The original music score is composed by Pino Donaggio.
Brian De Palma originally wanted the Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann to play Kate Miller, but she declined because of the violence. The role then went on to Angie Dickinson. Sean Connery was offered the role of Robert Elliot and was enthusiastic about it, but declined on account of previously acquired commitments.


Dressed to Kill currently holds an 84% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[5] Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 stars out of 4, stating "Dressed to Kill is an exercise in style, not narrative; it would rather look and feel like a thriller than make sense, but DePalma has so much fun with the conventions of the thriller that we forgive him and go along.[6] In his movie guide, Leonard Maltin gave the film 3 1/2 stars out of 4, calling it a "High-tension melodrama", and stating "De Palma works on viewers emotions, not logic and maintains a fever pitch from start to finish." He also praised Pino Donaggio's "chilling" music score.
Two versions of the film exist in North America, an R rated version and an unrated version. The unrated version was around 30 secs longer and showed more genitalia in the shower scene (see below), more blood in the elevator scene, including a close-up shot of the killer slitting Kate's throat, and some sexier dialogue from Liz during the scene in Elliott's office. These scenes were trimmed when the MPAA originally gave the film an "X" rating.
Allen earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best New Star, but a Razzie nomination as well. Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, a fan of De Palma, was influenced to write True Romance because of this film, targeting Nancy Allen's performance as the inspiration for the film's leading woman.


Release Date: July 25, 1980

Distrib: Filmways


Boxoffice: $31,899,000 2013: $96,764,300