Trailer
Plot summary
Kate Miller, a New York housewife, attends therapy with the psychiatrist Dr. Robert Elliott. During an appointment she tries to seduce him, and he refuses, citing his marriage. Her teenage son Peter, an inventor, cancels their plans for the day to work on his entry for the city's science fair, so Kate goes to a museum alone. There she flirts with a stranger, Warren Lockman, and they ride in a taxi to his apartment, where they have sex. Hours later Kate awakens and finds a Health Department document showing that Warren has syphilis and gonorrhea. She leaves, then returns for her wedding ring, and the elevator opens on a tall blonde in dark sunglasses holding a straight razor. Liz Blake, a call girl, sees the killing.
Cast
- Amalie Collieras Cleaning Woman
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dressed to Kill (1980)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dickinson clashed with the film's costume designer, Ann Roth, over what she would wear: Roth wanted a gray suit in reference to Kim Novak in Vertigo, but Dickinson wanted white, saying “they're not going to expect blood to go on a white coat.” Dickinson eventually won the argument.
- Sean Connery was considered for the role of Robert Elliott, but because of his previous commitments Michael Caine ended up playing the part. De Palma originally wanted Liv Ullmann to play Kate Miller; she declined because of the violence, and he then gave the role to Angie Dickinson, who he thought looked the part.
SPOILER
While acknowledging similarities to Alfred Hitchcock's films, particularly Psycho, Brian De Palma said he got the idea of the murderer from watching a transsexual on The Phil Donahue Show, a programme that itself makes an appearance in the film.SPOILER
Iowa City National Organization for Women and members of other feminist organizations picketed a screening on the University of Iowa campus, handing out leaflets condemning what they saw as violence against women shown as entertainment. Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media argued that “The distorted image of a psychotic male transvestite makes all sexual minorities appear sick and dangerous.”- Nancy Allen was drawn to the character of Liz as her husband De Palma developed her, but kept it to herself, thinking that he would reject her. Only while she was filming Steven Spielberg's 1941 did she get a telephone call from De Palma telling her to take a look at Liz; she accepted immediately.
- The naked body in the film's opening shower scene was not Dickinson's: it belonged to the model Victoria Lynn Johnson, who had been the 1977 Penthouse Pet of the Year.
- Two versions circulate in North America. The unrated one runs around 30 seconds longer, with more pubic hair in the shower scene, more blood in the elevator scene and more explicit dialogue from Liz Blake in Elliott's office, all footage trimmed when the MPAA originally gave the film an X rating.
