Dressed to Kill
Short description
Kate Miller, a sexually dissatisfied homemaker, is murdered with a razor in the elevator of her New York apartment building after a session with her psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Elliott. Liz Blake, a sex worker, witnesses the killing and picks up the discarded weapon, which makes her the police's leading suspect. The actual killer, a blonde woman, sets out to eliminate the only witness. Peter, the victim's son, refuses to believe Liz is guilty and helps her work toward the truth.
Brian De Palma wrote and directed the film, the eighth of the twenty-four features he has directed in chronological order, coming between The Fury and Blow Out. George Litto produced. Nancy Allen plays Liz, Michael Caine plays Dr. Elliott, Angie Dickinson plays Kate Miller, Keith Gordon plays Peter, and Dennis Franz appears as Detective Marino. The film runs 105 minutes.
Made for about seven million dollars, it returned roughly thirty-two million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 7.1 rating from over forty-six thousand votes, and on TMDB a 7 from more than a thousand. A critics' rating of 6.7 from fifty-nine reviews places it near the audience scores, though somewhat below them.
What's left behind the scenes
- Sean Connery was offered the role of Robert Elliott, and initially agreed enthusiastically, but ultimately had to decline due to commitments to other projects and a lack of time.
- The museum exteriors were filmed in New York, while the interiors were shot at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (the museum's "griffin" emblem can even be spotted in a number of shots). The painting depicting a large gorilla being observed by Angie Dickinson now hangs in the office of this museum's wholesale and retail sales manager.
- Angie Dickinson said that during the scene where her character is seduced in a New York taxi, several onlookers watching the filming shouted, "Keep it up, Police Woman!" (a reference to her most famous TV role).
- Michael Caine's doctor's office is located at 162 East 70th Street in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
- In his youth, at his mother's request, Brian De Palma spied on his father and used a recording device to catch him with another woman. This life experience inspired the director to make the film.
- Brian De Palma specifically wrote the role of Liz Blake for his then-wife, Nancy Allen.
- Brian De Palma initially wanted Liv Ullmann to play Kate Miller, but she turned down the offer.
- In the opening scene, where Angie Dickinson's character is showering, a body double was used. When the film was first released, producers persuaded the 48-year-old Dickinson to maintain the rumor that the body was her own. However, it soon became clear that the body in the frame belonged to Victoria Johnson (although it was originally planned to be the director's wife – Nancy Allen).
- The conversation between Liz and Peter, near the end of the film, about gender reassignment surgery was filmed at the 'Windows on the World' restaurant in the World Trade Center in New York.
- In the late 1970s, Brian De Palma wrote a screenplay based on Gerald Walker's article 'Cruising,' but he was unable to secure the rights to adapt the material. The story of a series of brutal murders among homosexuals in criminal New York was later adapted for the screen and directed by William Friedkin, while De Palma incorporated only some elements from his script version into 'Dressed to Kill.' Both films were released in 1980 and provoked a controversial public reaction (after numerous disputes with the MPAA committee to avoid an X rating).
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