Dressed to Kill – Blu-ray Review

 

The Film:

One thing that Brian De Palma was know for in the 1980s was his tendency to invoking the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock. Many of his movies from that decade were full of suspense with twists and turns along the way. If they were filmed in black and white, you’d think they were right of the 1950s and 60s. DRESSED TO KILL, starring Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen and Michael Caine was no exception.

DRESSED TO KILL is an interesting movie to review because of the giant twist less than halfway through to movie. There is a murder that’s witnessed by a prostitute, Liz Blake (Nancy Allen of ROBOCOP fame). After the murder, the woman seems to be following Liz everywhere she goes. Kate Miller (blonde bombshell Angie Dickinson) is seeing her psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Elliot (played to perfection by Michael Caine) at this time. That’s about all that can be said about the plot without giving too much away.

DRESSED TO KILL is De Palma’s love letter to Hitchcock. There are many elements throughout that could be taken directly from one of Hitchcock’s many movies. The acting, while at times over the top, is really good. The chemistry between the actors is certainly there, especially between Allen and Dennis Franz who plays Det. Marino, the cop on the murder case who doesn’t exactly believe Liz Blake. Keith Gordon (CHRISTINE) plays Peter Miller, the son of Kate, who befriends Liz and helps to prove her story.

The movie is a bit dated, and even though it feels like we’ve seen this movie before, there is something fresh here. If the movie was in any one else’s hands besides De Palma, it probably would have failed. The acting is over the top, but still very good. The look of the film is gritty and fits in perfectly with what New York was like at the time, or at least from what I’ve seen, as I was only a child in the 1980s. If you’re a fan of De Palma, then this is a must see, and if you’ve never seen one of his movie, then it’s worth checking out. You might want to jump into De Palma with other movies first, but this is one that really should be seen.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Visual: The film looks pretty good, but you can certainly tell that it was filmed in the 1980s. It can still be a little grainy and even dark in the shadows at times. The sound is really solid. You don’t miss a word of dialogue.

Special Features

The Making of Dressed to Kill Documentary

Unrated, R-Rated and TV-Rated Comparison

Slashing Dressed to Kill Featurette

An Appreciation by Keith Gordon Featurette

These all seem like great features, and I would have loved to have checked them out, but for some reason they just didn’t play. I couldn’t even get to the main menu screen. Once you put the disc in, it jumps to the movie and after the movie, it just starts again. I don’t know if I got a defective disc, but it’s hard to rate these because of that fault. And I tried a few different times over a few days to get it to play.

The Film Rate: Rating:

The Blu-ray Rating: Incomplete