Movie Review - Dressed to Kill

Dressed to Kill (1980)

Starring Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, and Dennis Franz

Directed by Brian De Palma

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

The Hitchcockian homages abound in Dressed to Kill which owes a huge sum of money to the Hitchcock estate for borrowing very heavily from two of the Master of Suspense's most loved films -- Vertigo and Psycho.  As a huge Hitchcock fan (please peruse my reviews of nearly all of Hitch's films as part of last year's Hitchcock Fest), there's part of me that enjoyed the tip of the hat that director Brian De Palma gives to Alfred, but there's another part of me that wanted the guy to pave his own way in the movie industry rather than hitch a ride from Hitch.

Dressed to Kill is a film that's difficult to talk about without spoiling too much, but the main gist of the story is that one of psychologist Robert Elliot's (Michael Caine) patients has killed another of his clients.  High-priced call girl Liz Blake (Nancy Allen) saw the murder occur and now Dr. Elliot's patient is trying to hunt Liz down.  While none of the overarching plot is reminiscent of a Hitchcock flick, once details emerge (that I don't want to spoil here), the comparisons become all too apparent (and laughably so, at that).

However, despite these similarities, I kind of liked this movie.  It's true that the first thirty minutes are kind of tortuous.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say utterly ridiculous and painfully pretentious.  I was really about to give up on this one.  However, things took a turn for the better and the remainder of the film really flew by.  I'll say this about De Palma -- I've seen a few films by this guy now and he is pretty darn decent at wielding his camera to create suspense.  While he very well may be the biggest Hitchcock fanboy around (and, in turn, a Hitchcock wannabe), he did learn quite a bit in terms of pacing and editing from his idol.  

There are certainly problems with Dressed to Kill, but for Hitchcock fans out there, I can't help but recommend a viewing even though it's not exactly a winning film.

The RyMickey Rating:  C