Dressed to Kill

Friday, March 14 - Saturday, March 15, 2014

DCP projection

“A witty, romantic, psychological horror film and it’s almost as rewarding as a successful analysis.

“DRESSED TO KILL is… about a split personality, a furious transvestite who goes clomping around Manhattan in large high heels, a blond wig, dark glasses, and a black raincoat, carrying a straight razor ready to slash any woman who arouses the man in him.

“Among the people whose lives he touches in one way and another are Dr. Robert Elliott (Michael Caine), a psychiatrist with a fancy East Side office and the patients to go with it; Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson), a suburban matron whose sex life at home leaves her too much time for erotic fantasies; Peter Miller (Keith Gordon), her teenage son, who’s also a science genius; Liz Blake (Nancy Allen), a sweet-looking Park Avenue hooker, who turns tricks to play the stock market; Detective Marino (Dennis Franz), who must track down the slasher; and Dr. Levy (David Margulies), another psychiatrist, more avuncular than and nowhere near as posh as Dr. Elliott, who has been treating a possibly homicidal transvestite…

“The movie owes a great deal to Hitchcock, perhaps too much for one to be able to judge it entirely on its own merits. It’s possible that if one is a Hitchcock student, with a special knowledge of Psycho and Vertigo, one will resent all of the so-called quotes and references that Mr. De Palma includes in Dressed to Kill. But that, I think, is to underrate what the writer-director has pulled off in this case, which is not an imitation but a film made by someone who has studied the master and learned, in addition to style, something far more important, that is, a consistent point of view. Among other things, the De Palma camera appears to have an intelligence of its own.” – Vincent Canby, The New York Times

• Country USA
• Rating R
• Year 1980
• Running Time 105 minutes
• Director Brian De Palma

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.