Dressed to Kill

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For other uses, see Dressed to Kill (disambiguation).

Dressed to Kill
original film poster
Directed by	Brian de Palma
Produced by	George Litto
Written by	Brian de Palma
Starring	Michael Caine Angie Dickinson Nancy Allen
Music by	Pino Donaggio
Cinematography	Ralf D. Bode
Editing by	Gerard B. Greenberg
Distributed by	Filmways
Release date(s)	June 23, 1980
Running time	105 min.
Language	English
Budget	$6,500,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Dressed to Kill is a 1980 horror film written and directed by Brian de Palma. It starred Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson and Nancy Allen. The original music score is composed by Pino Donaggio.

Tagline: Brian de Palma, master of the macabre, invites you to a showing of the latest fashion... in murder.

1 Plot summary
2 Main cast
3 Technical data
4 Awards and nominations
5 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie makes several overt references to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and the plot contains many striking similarities.

Sexually frustrated housewife and mother Kate Miller visits her New York City psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Elliott, to complain about her unfulfilling erotic life. Kate goes to an art gallery and is stalked by a mysterious stranger who lures hers outside to a van, where he feels her up, then reaches under her skirt and pulls off her lightly golden tint panties and subjects her to a series of orgasms by penetrating her with his fingers - and she does not object. He takes her back to his apartment, leaving her panties on the floor of the taxi, and gives her a long, hot afternoon of steamy, satisfying sex that lasts well into the evening and the night. Just as she's about to leave, she finds out he has a veneral disease which he has now passed to her through their sexual intercourse - which becomes a moot point when she is mutilated by a creepy blonde woman in an elevator.

Blonde prostitute Liz Blake, who caught a glimpse of the murderer, becomes both the prime suspect and the killer's next target. With the police seemingly less than willing to believe her story, Liz joins forces with Kate's son Peter to get the psychopath themselves. The murderer is finally revealed as Dr. Elliott, a transsexual; he is arrested by the police and placed in a mental asylum. In a dream sequence, Dr. Elliott escapes from the asylum and slashes Liz in the throat in a bloody act of vengeance. She wakes up screaming, realizing that Elliot's attack was just a dream.