“Dressed to Kill” Movie Review

 

“Dressed to Kill”

Movie Review

  

American sexual psychological horror-thriller Dressed to Kill is a work by Brian De Palma, who also wrote and directed it. It stars Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon, and others. It shows the events leading up to the violent murder of a New York City housewife, played by Dickinson, before focusing on a prostitute, played by Nancy Allen, who sees the crime and tries to solve it with the assistance of the victim's son, played by Keith Gordon. In July 1980, the movie was released. Some feminist organizations in the US disapproved of the movie despite its favorable reviews because of its depictions of transgenderism and violence against women. Dickinson's portrayal earned her the Saturn Award for Best Actress. In addition to being nominated for a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, Nancy Allen also won the first-ever Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress.

 

The movie's story is as follows: Dr. Robert Elliott, a psychiatrist in New York City, offers counseling to Kate Miller, a housewife who is having issues with her libido. After a meeting, Elliott refuses Kate's overtures because he does not want to endanger his lovely marriage, and she leaves. Teenage inventor Peter, who was supposed to spend the day with Kate, had to postpone because a crucial stage had been achieved in the development of his entry for the city's scientific exposition. Kate visits the Metropolitan Museum of Art alone as a result, where she unintentionally flirts with an intriguing stranger. When they are forced to separate ways, Kate joins the stranger in a taxi after they pursue one other around the museum. In his apartment, they had sexual relations.

 

After a while, Kate wakes up and decides to depart quietly while Warren Lockman is sleeping. As Kate visits Warren's desk to give him a letter, she discovers a document stating that Warren has gonorrhea and syphilis. She is startled and quickly leaves the apartment, but she quickly forgets her wedding ring on the nightstand and comes back to get it. Kate is brutally slashed to death in the elevator by a tall, blonde woman wearing dark sunglasses and carrying a straight razor when the elevator doors open. Liz Blake, a high-end call girl, discovers the body and, after spotting the murderer in the elevator's convex mirror, becomes both the main suspect and the murderer's next victim.

 

Dr. Elliott gets a strange message left by a transsexual patient named "Bobbi" on his answering machine. Elliott reportedly won't sign the appropriate paperwork for Bobbi to undergo sex reassignment surgery, which is why their therapy sessions have purportedly been terminated, as Bobbi makes fun of the psychiatrist. Elliott tries to convince Dr. Levy, the patient's new doctor, that Bobbi is jeopardizing herself and others.

 

Liz teams up with a vengeance-seeking Peter to discover the killer, employing a variety of his homemade listening devices and time-lapse cameras to track patients leaving Elliott's clinic. Police Detective Marino is skeptical of Liz's claim, in part due to her occupation. They capture Bobbi on tape, and shortly after that, a tall blonde wearing sunglasses begins stalking Liz and repeatedly tries to kill her. In the New York City Tube, Peter stops one of them by dousing Bobbi with homemade Mace.

 

 

The two devise a plan to snoop around Dr. Elliott's office and discover Bobbi's real name. Liz lures the therapist by stripping off and flirting with him, keeping him preoccupied long enough for him to leave and glance at his appointment schedule. A blonde pulls Peter away while he is staring through the window. As Liz comes back, a blonde with a razor approaches her. The blonde outside shoots and hurts the blonde inside, which causes the wig to fall off and makes the razor-wielding blonde appear to be Dr. Elliott and Bobbi. It turns out that the blonde who shot Bobbi was the same blonde who had been pursuing Liz; she was a female police officer.

 

 

Elliott is taken into custody and confined to a psychiatric hospital. Later, Dr. Levy explains to Liz that Elliott desired to be a woman, but his male side prevented him from doing the procedure. The unstable, female aspect of the doctor's personality, represented by Bobbi, felt threatened whenever a woman sexually intrigued Elliott to the point where she eventually turned violent. Dr. Levy learned this from Elliott during their final meeting, so he alerted the police, who got to work and eventually caught Elliott.

 

After killing a nurse and escaping the asylum, Elliott chases Liz to Peter's house where he cuts her throat. When she awakens wailing, Peter rushes to her side to reassure her that it was only a nightmare.

WATCH THE REVIEW VIDEO FOR MORE...