Like Scott I saw this movie multiple times on HBO at an inappropriately young age. An odor of cheesiness has definitely attached itself to it over the intervening decades, but it's still fun to watch anyway. She's cute in an early 1980's way and likable and sympathetic at the same time, which is about all the part requires.Īlthough it's entertaining, there's a trashy feel to this movie that almost made me regard it as a guilty pleasure. Nancy Allen was nominated for both a Razzie and a Golden Globe, but I actually think she does a good job despite the nepotistic casting by De Palma. She has listed this film as her favorite of her performances. Many of her scenes are without dialogue and she is able to convey everything she needs to without it. In his autobiography he credits the film with reviving his career when the acting offers had started to diminish.
#Victoria johnson dressed to kill windows
One of the final scenes is another indicator of the time period being filmed in the Windows on the World restaurant atop the World Trade Center.ĭespite getting top billing, Michael Caine's part is a supporting one. Perhaps the most old fashioned view of the film is its treatment of a (another spoiler alert) transsexual character, whose psychotic behavior is attributed to his sexuality as if that alone is enough of an explanation for his motive. Of course the fashions and cars are all of the era, as is the gritty look of the subways. At one point he even gets actual film developed, something you'll probably have to explain to kids today. The technology Peter uses is laughable by today's standards and the computing power he brags about near the film's beginning is miniscule compared to the power of the phone in your pocket, only 100 times the size. It does allow the movie to open and close with a fantasy sequence, but honestly you could remove or truncate both of them and the film wouldn't be any the worse for their loss except for the minor titillation provided by the nudity in both scenes. His one mis-step is the film's final sequence, which turns out to be a fantasy, thus removing all of its impact. He also maintains a sense of suspense and danger that lasts through much of the film and which covers most of its flaws. The aforementioned museum scene and the sequence on the subway when Liz is stalked by the killer are two of the film's most memorable moments. His sense of visual style and frequent use of deep focus are the best things the movie has going for it. Together they make an odd detective pairing as they bumble their way to the identity of the killer and the film's second and most famous twist.ĭe Palma directs the film stylishly. She is used by Police Detective Marino (Dennis Franz already looking middle-aged way back in 1980) to help identify the killer and helped in the pursuit by Peter, Kate's nerdy son. The focus of the film then shifts to Liz (played by De Palma's real life wife Nancy Allen), a prostitute who witnessed part of the murder and caught a glimpse of the killer. After their sexual tryst, in the film's first twist (spoiler alert), Kate is murdered by a razor blade wielding blonde in the elevator.
Kate and the stranger play an odd game of cat-and-mouse following each other around the museum which eventually leads up to them having oral sex in the back of a taxi on the way to his apartment. The scene runs almost 10 minutes with no dialogue. Later that same day, after failing to seduce her psychiatrist, Doctor Elliott (Caine), she meets a man in the Metropolitan Art Museum in one of the film's most interesting visual moments. It all turns out to be a fantasy inside the head of Dickinson's Kate Miller, a bored housewife with a dissatisfied sex life. Considered erotic and envelope pushing for the time, with its soft lighting and rather cheesy music, it's lost most of its impact today.
The film famously opens with a nude shower scene featuring Angie Dickinson, who was pushing 50 at the time and still looking damn good, but with a body double for the nude close-ups provided by Penthouse Pet Victoria Johnson. Rewatching it now for the first time in at least 30 years I was surprised by how much I remembered and by how much of it has become dated. Although at 11 or 12 I wasn't really able to understand it completely, there are images from it that have stayed with me the way things do when you're exposed to them in childhood. Dressed to Kill is one of those movies that I saw multiple times on HBO at an inappropriately young age.
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