Dressed To Kill [Blu-ray]

Kate Miller is an unfulfilled wife and mother, she loves her husband and son, but her husband does not satisfy her sexually. She goes to see her psychiatrist, Dr Robert Elliott, and expresses her frustration with her husband's "useless performance", before attempting to seduce him into sleeping with her. Dr Elliott explains that he loves his wife and it wouldn't be worth risking his marriage, and Kate seems even more depressed. She later goes to the Metropolitan Museum where she flirts with a mysterious stranger, leading to her getting in a cab with him and they begin to have sex which resumes once they reach his apartment. With the man asleep, Kate decides to slip out but not before leaving the man a note. She then discovers a letter confirming that he has a venereal disease, absolutely mortified, she quickly leaves the apartment forgetting her wedding ring. Whilst in the lift, Kate realises she's missing her ring and decides to return to retrieve it. When the elevator doors open, she's met by a tall, blonde woman with sunglasses wielding a razor. The woman enters the lift and begins to slash away at Kate, as a call girl and her client await the lift on another floor. The lift opens to reveal a bloodied and dying Kate, with the mysterious blonde hiding inside. The client panics and runs away, whilst the scared call girl sees the woman's face in the mirror before the doors close.Dr Elliott later receives a phone call from a patient called Bobbi, Bobbi is transgender and tells the Dr that she has stolen his razor and killed a woman. Bobbi tells the Dr that a young woman saw her, and now she'll have to deal with her. Liz Blake is the call girl that witnessed the crime, she's pretty much the only suspect according to a crude cop that tells her she better find her client if she wants to clear her name. Liz soon starts seeing the tall blonde and fears she may be the next victim, whilst Kate's brainiac son Peter has figured out that the killer must be one of Dr Elliott's patients. Liz and Peter team up to try and find the killer, before the killer finds and kills Liz.Michael Caine gets top billing as Dr Robert Elliott, but I doubt he had more than 25 minutes of screen time. I have to say, Caine is a great actor but his performance here is no more than solid. Angie Dickinson is pretty decent as Kate, she appears in virtually every frame until her murder. She doesn't even have that much dialogue as half of her time in the film is a long silent scene in the museum. If this is a vehicle for any of the actors, then it was for former Mrs Brian De Palma, Nancy Allen, as Liz Blake. Allen has far more screen time than anyone else, and the story is from her point of view. Nancy Allen is not a great actress in my opinion, but she is likeable and her performance doesn't harm the film at all. She's probably best known to most people as RoboCop's partner, or for her performances in her former husband's films Carrie and Blow Out. Keith Gordon was good as Peter, but to me he will always be Arnie Cunningham from John Carpenter's Christine. Dennis Franz plays his small part as the slimy cop well, he also starred with Nancy Allen in Blow Out.Dressed to Kill isn't really a film to watch for superb acting, the real reason to watch it is for the brilliant work by one of my favourite directors, Brian De Palma. I love the way De Palma shoots his films, there's so much creativity and style. He's been accused of being an Alfred Hitchcock imitator which is very unfair. He does make his films in a similar way to Hitchcock, but he definitely has a style of his own. His mystery type films like Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Obsession, Body Double and Raising Cain all have a certain style that it's easy to tell they're his movies. Dressed to Kill has some fantastic sequences and some classic De Palma shots. The scene in the museum lasts roughly ten minutes and not a word is spoken, Kate and the stranger play a flirtatious game of cat and mouse that is expertly filmed as to never become boring. There's a scene where Peter is looking at his watch which is held up for us to see, all the while there's almost another scene playing out in the background. A scene as Liz looks along the platform leaning out from a train, she twice changes which way she's looking as characters behind her enter the train, it's just beautifully filmed. Even a simple looking scene in the police station where several of our main characters are in different areas are shot so the background and foreground are in focus at the same time, so our attention is never taken away from any of them. There's also a beautiful crane shot of Kate coming out of the museum, the camera then pans across to the taxi but not before we catch a glimpse of our killer, something I strangely only noticed this last time I watched it. There's the trademark De Palma split screen shot, and as a possible homage to Hitchcock, there's two shower scenes. There's an erotic undercurrent running through the film, with a few scenes of topless women. Nancy Allen goes topless in a shower scene, Angie Dickinson also appears nude in a shower scene which was later revealed to be a body double (It was the body double incident here that later inspired De Palma's Body Double). The attack in the lift is reasonably brutal, but it isn't a film for gore hounds. The music score by Pino Donaggio is excellent, as the film skips along towards its conclusion, the music gets louder and more chilling.Certainly not my favourite De Palma film, it's still a very enjoyable mystery/thriller with an interesting transgender killer storyline that focuses more on style than substance. If it was filmed by a lesser director then the film would've fell flat, it's De Palma that makes this film as worthwhile as it is. The Blu-ray from Arrow is a huge step-up in quality to the old barebones MGM DVD, though I doubt the picture quality will blow anyone away as it was shot to look quite soft to begin with. It is a lot sharper and detailed now, and the colours are much more vibrant. I don't think any fan of the film will be disappointed with the transfer, though I have read that the US Blu-ray is slightly better. The sound comes through clearly and there's English subtitles available. There's some really nice extras here, an 18 minute interview with producer George Litto, 30 minute interview with Angie Dickinson, 23 minute interview with Nancy Allen, 31 minute interview with Keith Gordon, a 44 minute making of, a 5 minute film comparison showing the difference between the R rated cut and the unrated version, a 10 minute feature with the cast and crew speaking about the problems with the film and the censors, the original trailer and a gallery that contains some great behind-the-scenes photos. The Blu-ray also comes with a reversible sleeve and a reasonably thick and informative booklet that contains lots of photos and information.

Visually stunning with perfect performances. The plot is not so novel or complex, but that's only one component of a film. Worth watching for the museum sequence alone.

If pushed, I always finger Brian DePalma's mid '90s gangster genre blender 'Carlito's Way' to be his supreme filmic triumph, but I gotta admit - between all the pseudo Hitchockian rip-offery and misogynistic behaviour, this 1980 offering comes a very close second. Featuring a dynamic directing style, razor sharp editing and wonderful leading performances from all concerned, this one tiptoes through a myriad of thriller tropes to deliver a well produced American giallo that ticks a number of boxes...We first meet sexually unsatisfied 40-something wife Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) as she plays hide the sponge in a 'what the hell..?' opening sequence taking place inside the shower. Why director Brian DePalma felt the need to open up his film with this is anyone's guess, but between that and all the soap suds, I was almost fooled into thinking this was an X-rated advert for Bubbleship Matey... Anyhoo, besides fiddling with her tuppence, Mrs Miller relays her sexual fantasies to psychiatrist Dr Robert Elliott (a deadpan Michael Caine) who attempts to dig out why she's so frustrated and hopefully scratch her itch before anything untoward occurs... which it obviously does, as she takes a lover in a Manhattan art museum, leading to an unforseen tragedy. This series of events takes up a large portion of the movie which then switches gears to focus on a high class call-girl (Nancy Allen) and Dickinson's whiz-kid son (Keith Gordon), who together are drawn into his mother's dark world in an attempt to solve the mystery and put a stop to a razor wielding maniac who loves nothing more than slicing up woman for their own sordid pleasure...Although, directed as a nod and a wink to both Alfred Hitchcock (namely 'Psycho' by way of 'Vertigo') and Dario Argento (his giallo 'black gloved killer' motif wrung for all its worth) - there's still plenty to enjoy in this lurid thriller. From the screwy screenplay and inventive direction by director DePalma, this one is a pure cinematic delight - each shot is purposely framed to ensure you see / and don't see exactly what DePalma wants. Kudos too for composer Pino Donaggio's effective score which elevates the visuals and ensures the viewer is given a helluva ride - at times, I didn't know if I should be laughing at the audacity of DePalma, but even so he keeps the train rolling and not once was I bored. This one delivered the goods and like all good movies, focuses on a myriad of characters from Dickinson and Caines' ''older'' cast to the juxtaposition of Allen and Gordon's much younger protagonists, who echo each other and of course all are involved some way or another in the central 'mystery'...Arrow Video have done another sterling job with this UK Blu-Ray release sporting a very fine transfer and amazing audio. The myriad of extra special features include: A chat with producer George Litto while Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen and Keith Gordon all discus their roles in the film. We also get a documentary on the making of Dressed to Kill featuring De Palma, Litto, Dickinson, Allen, Dennis Franz and more! Rounding off are an 'Unrated, R-Rated, and TV-Rated Comparison' featurette, a short regarding the film's original X-rating, photo gallery and reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork. All in all this movie maybe not for everyone but as a straight forward early '80s thriller/slasher flick it delivers in spades and Arrow's Blu-Ray release ensures this is a must have for new and older fans alike. Recommended.

Didn't dislike anything. And i use it for my own enjoyment...