Dressed to Kill

Directed by Brian de Palma
Cast: Angie Dickinson, Michael Caine, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon, Dennis Franz, David Margulies, Brandon Maggart
1980

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.

Released in the summer of 1980, DRESSED TO KILL was met with a public and critical reaction that ran from acclaim to unqualified disgust ... and quickly made De Palma one of the most controversial filmmakers of his time.

At first the only heated debate seemed to be whether he was paying homage to or "ripping off" the work of Alfred Hitchcock. But people soon took sides over an even stickier issue: did the brutal fate of a leading female character, and the terrorization of another, reflect a misogynistic attitude on the part of the director? This question (one that viewers ultimately have to answer for themselves) would haunt De Palma's career for several years to come.

Award:

1981 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, Besr Actress