Dressed To Kill [DVD]

When I was 15 or so, during the era of Reagan and Thatcher, pre-recorded pan and scan films on VHS, punitive TV and VCR packages from high-street firms like Radio Rentals that the Mafia could learn from and independent fish shops that would sell you a heart-bursting half-pounder burger made from dubious cows-I kept pimping my credulous older brothers to hire the same three videos for me every weekend. They were, unsurprisingly, John Carpenter's The Thing, James Camerons' Aliens and, most importantly, Brian DePalma's Dressed To Kill. There was something special about the last one. To my perverse adolescent mind it had everything I could wish for...plentiful nudity, ritualized violence and sneering humour. The more I watched it though, the more that slick surface of tabloid thrills gave way to other delights. There was the deceptively romantic score by Pino Donaggio that seemed so yearning, indicative of heightened emotional states and descriptive of the director's specific intent within dialogue-free scenes. There was the play of looks within a formal composition, so difficult to fully appreciate when a portion of the picture was missing.Finally there was the sense that reflections, character-doubling and the deliberate confusion of objective/subjective viewpoints was vital to the understanding of the work at stake. The rental video version of Dressed To Kill disappeared in the form that I remember, to be replaced(like an alien seed-pod replica) by a trimmed retail version and then by a network TV abomination that was so butchered it was wearily incomprehensible. I've purchased numerous other films on laserdisc (both foreign and domestic), replaced them with DVD's and now I'm enjoying the opportunities that blu ray provides.It is in this respect that I must thank Arrow Films for their superb release of Dressed To Kill on the latter format.The extras are diverting, as they should be, but not game-changing in terms of my enjoyment. The film is the thing and what a wonderful job they have made of it. I'm so impressed by the cut(it turns out that what I imagined was the uncut version all those years back was actually the equivalent of the U.S. R-Restricted version). The Arrow version is clearly the Unrated U.S. version. Not only can I visually dissect the intricacy of DePalma's micro-management of mise-en-scene in widescreen, hear profanities on the soundtrack that I had never known were there or see the rich-colour palette in the intended soft-focus delirium of this imagined 1980's world...I can also reflect more upon my own reactions to the voyeuristic pleasures this film provides. There is still plenty left for me to discover in this release and the Arrow blu ray has given one of my all-time favourite slices of lost genre cinema back to me, after thirty years, in a form that I'd barely hoped was still possible. The little booklet provided with the disc was a revelation and the production team should get kudos for it in particular. In sum, this film has been a psycho-sexual mind-virus that I contracted once and couldn't fully recover, and be in remission, from. Arrow have refined the bacillus so that it achieved maximum amplification in my craving system.I owe them a debt of gratitude for my current state of sumptuous imaginative debility. This is an essential purchase. Next stop...Arrow's Battle Royale.

Good film, Angie is sexy in this.

I seem to come a bit late to this one. I haven't seen it for many many years and always remembered it with affection. This MGM Home Ent DVD does not let me down. An excellent print (with the colour the way I imagine De Palma intended ie none too bright but just right-how's that for a bit of artistic criticism??), good picture and sound. It really is a woman's picture in that it is virtually carried by first Angie Dickenson in what I think is one of her finest roles (If you don't count BIG BAD MOMMA made just 3 or 4 years earlier-if you have seen it you can't forget it-I digress). The camera loves her and she loves it back. Then you have Nancy Allen, completely different and very lovable I thought-Vulnerable but tough. Both women have discreet nude scenes tho it is obvious that Angie uses a body double for some gratuitous close ups in the shower. The plot is, as others have said, a bit of a homage to Hitchcock and none the worse for it. You may know or guess the ending, but that didn't spoil a good solid mystery thriller. One of De Palama's best methinks. Highly recomended to film lovers everywhere. (And make what you will of Caine's performence!!). SISTERS arrived yesterday. Can't wait to see it.

"Dressed to Kill" is easily the best of De Palma's suspense thrillers. The black and white psychology of these films are off-putting for some but I find it to be an effective way of crafting compelling characters that leave an impression. The tracking shot at the museum, with Pino Donaggio's breathtaking score that treats a coyly sexual pursuit in the same manner, cinematically, as a tense and dangerous chase, is one of the best sequences of De Palma's career.I would recommend getting the Blu to UK viewers- it's a pity that it's only available as an import, because the blu ray contains the uncut version of the film. The differences aren't hugely different but having seen both cuts the cuts do take away from the blatant provocative menace of the scenes they occur in.The main Making Of featurette is quite interesting, especially in putting the film in the context of it's reception and the controversy surrounding it. I always love hearing DePalma talk about the creative process- his distinct visual ideas often get carried over into other films, as shown in the documentary which discusses De Palma's aborted screenplay for "Cruising" (eventually made by William Friedkin, and an awful film it was) and how elements of this turn up in "Dressed to Kill".

Micheal cain is brilliant in this movie.