Dressed To Kill (1980)

[On Dr Elliott’s answering machine]

“This is Bobbi the tranny. You won't see me anymore, so I thought I'd have a little session with your machine. Oh Doctor, I'm so unhappy. I'm a woman trapped inside a man's body - and you're not helping me to get out! So I got a new shrink, Levy's his name, he's gonna sign the papers so I can get my operation. Oh... I borrowed your razor... and - well, you'll read all about it. Some blonde bitch saw me, but I'll get her”.

I love it when she has sex with him then finds out he’s got every SDI under the sun!

Yes, shows the upper class, married woman is now tainted by adultery AND disease in one afternoon. What comes next trumps both.

OP - this looks like a really entertaining film. That would, obviously, never get made today. That trailer seemed to give most of the film away -- but I'm still intrigued to check it out. You forgot to mention that it's currently streaming on HBO Max!

I guess she didn’t need to make that visit to the clinic.

I love Nany Allen’s wholesome hooker role

Bobbi was something else!

I love the nearly wordless scene at the museum where Kate (Angie) pursues and is pursued by Warren (Ken Baker). Gorgeous tracking shots.

This showed up on HBO in 1981 or 1982 and we kids were forbidden to watch it, or any other R-rated movies. So of course I watched it when my parents were outside with the neighbors socializing one night. Crouched in front of the tv with the sound way down, I kept one hand on the cable box channel changer (no remote for us) the whole time, carefully listening for a parent or sibling to come in. It was such a dirty, sophisticated, exciting movie to me, and I’d say half of that was just from the fear of getting caught watching it. I was 10 and an idiot.

I haven't seen it in many years so I'll rewatch on HBO MAX. Thanks for the tip R4.

This is very interesting: Nancy Allen giving an overview of her life, sort of. She doesn’t go into a ton of details about most of the movies, but if you love that era…

Keith Godon (the son) is adorkable in it

oops Gordon^^

Much to my surprise every cross dresser, drag queen and transperson I've ever met LOVES the film. Well ok then.

I love slick thrillers. And this one with the killer tranny (though dated), mistaken identity, nerdy sleuths and other lurid De Palma fetishes is a fave.

Bonus: the World Trade Center makes several cameos. Now that's creepy!

When I first watched this movie, I kinda thought she deserved it. All that trouble for a little bump and grind.

I wouldn't mind catching the clap for a really hot guy but the guy she chased around the museum wasn't particularly attractive.

Another problem I have with the film (as an avid gourmet) is the remarkable tale Miss Dickinson tells to her onscreen son, about Napoleon inventing the eponymous pastry. Mille-feuille was around a long time before Napoleon was even born.

Angie Dickinson was pissed off when it was publicly acknowledged a body double was used in the close shots in the shower scene. (“Why tell them it’s Pittsburgh when they think it’s Paris?”)

Apparently the old bat missed the whole point that the shower scene is a fantasy, and Kate’s imagining herself with a centerfold-worthy body.

[Quote] Much to my surprise every cross dresser, drag queen and transperson I've ever met LOVES the film. Well ok then.

Maybe because it hits home so well.

De Palma was first trying to get involved with Cruising and was working on treatments for the film when a deal wasn’t reached he wrote Dressed to Kill.

Just as well. Cruising is terrible and much more offensive.

[quote]This showed up on HBO in 1981 or 1982 and we kids were forbidden to watch it

We were teenagers, 15 and 17. My mother came in WHEN IT WAS ON and instructed us that we had to come in for dinner next commercial. I had to explain that R-Rated movies on HBO did not have commercials!

R19, that was not Miss Angie Dickinson's body double. I was.

[quote] Angie Dickinson was pissed off when it was publicly acknowledged a body double was used in the close shots in the shower scene.

At least they gave Angie the Penthouse Pet of the Year as her body double. But personally I think Angie would have done just fine as is

Singing my song “You Don’t Look Like Angie Dickinson to Me” to r24

Later I’ll sing “Exercise In Futility “ and “That’s Why I Want It!”

Ms. Dickinson’s body double (who had been a Penthouse Pet if the Year) later had a long battle with cancer. Ironically, it began in her breast.

Angie was involved with selecting the body double, who was listed in the credits. I don’t see how she’d be “pissed” about people discussing her…

^^ OF the year

[bold]: (

FYI there are two versions of the movie on HBO On Demand: the theatrical release and the "extended version," which runs a minute longer.

The best version is the MGM blu ray. The fantastic music score is remixed for a 5.1 sound field and sounds incredible, really ratcheting up the tension. I don't know what's on HBO, but the Criterion blu ray is in fucking MONO. They didn't even include the n5.1 remix as an option. It sounds flat and dull.

Little known fact. Doris Roberts was originally cast as the female lead but clashed with Brian De Palmer over her characters motivation and walked off. Angie Dickinson was brought in to reshoot.

Watch the sequence in the art museum; superb ... silent ... suspenseful storytelling.

Skip the rest.

The dream/horror sequences are brilliant interpretations of fear, trauma, and voyeurism.

Coming soon as a Broadway musical?

I like the part where she flicks her bean in the shower

We highly doubt that.

R9, thats the one part I dont like. I'm sure I'm missing something, but it seems to go on forever.

R39 it's arguably the best part of the movie, perhaps best viewed on a larger screen.

It was filmed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art because the Met refused permission for such FILTH.

OK-Why Is it the best part.

Philadelphia is the go-to place for anything filthy

The museum scene is a virtuoso. The compositions are gorgeous, the pacing, the visual cues. Alot to dissect (snicker). Angie observing the couples. The unruly little girl (Angie's inner self?) that runs through (later mirrored with the precocious girl in the elevator). The paintings that evoke humor, curiosity, guilt, judgement. The voyeuristic themes of seeing and being seen. The beautiful music score. The seemingly playful cat and mouse. Things not being what they appear. It's funny, sad, creepy. And no dialogue. We didn't need dialogue we had FACES...

[quote] The museum scene is a virtuoso. ..... And no dialogue. We didn't need dialogue we had FACES...

NINE minutes without dialogue. No modern director would dare.

[quote] Angie Dickinson (Kate Miller) said the scene where her character gets seduced in the back of a taxicab was filmed on-location in New York City, where several gawkers observed the scene and shouted, "Right on, Police Woman!" (referring to her previous television role).

The cool part about the museum scene is that Brian De Palma wrote voice over dialogue for Angie's character so she had something to play and think while she was doing it. When the film had already been editing for a while, she asked Brian when they were doing the voice overs for that scene and he said that he never intended to use them, but he knew it would help her performance to know exactly what was going on in her character's head. A really smart idea.

It's a beautifully made thriller and the kind that don't get made these days. It goes to show what happens when a talented indie filmmaker is given mostly free reign in Hollywood with a lot of money to help tell their story.

OP I love it, too. It’s all so delicious.

just love the early sex scene in the movie, where angie's guy is really pumping into her hard with grunting orgasm! NICE!...

[quote] It’s all so delicious.

The National Organization of women disagreed.

In late August 1980, almost a month after Dressed to Kill had opened in theatres across the country, feminists began planning a response to this movie that many felt promoted violence against women. On August 28, members of Women Against Violence Against Women, of Women Against Pornography, and of other groups rallied in front of theatres in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Boston, inviting others to join their protest. In the violence against women it depicted, they argued, Dressed to Kill had gone too far.

De Palma did much to inflame this environment, hiding behind the First Amendment and ridiculing those groups who failed to see the satire in his films. He told Newsday’s Judy Stone, “I think you should be able to make a film about anything. Should we get into censorship because we have movies that are going to upset some part of the community?” The fact that these protests enhanced the box-office appeal of Dressed to Kill, much to the lament of feminist groups, encouraged De Palma and his distributors to use such tactics for his next two films, Scarface and Body Double.

Despite the attention-grabbing nudity and brief but severe violence, the film is told from a female perspective. It's all from Angie's POV (rather sympathetically at that), and then to Nancy's Liz, the not too bight but good-hearted working girl. It has some balance. But it's easy to see why it would cause an uproar. And then the trans issue...so, yeah...

I LOVE this movie and yes it could never, ever get made today.

I was supposed to play Angie's part but Gary…..well you know…

That wacky redhead would be better suited for Liz.

I love this movie and it’s on my regular Amazon watchlist rotation. I’m not sure why, but some of these older movies like “Dressed to Kill”, “Halloween” (original), “The Silence of the Lambs”, and pretty much almost every Hitchcock movie have a calming effect on me.

My

R53 wanna get married?

Angie getting finger banged in the shower was pretty racy for those days.

I first saw the movie when I was a judgy 10- or 11-year-old, & remember thinking she deserved to get an STD for being so trampy. (But didn't deserve to get murdered)

This movie and Cruising seemed to foretell a sinister sexual atmosphere that was lurking in NYC in 1980. It's almost as if DePalma and Friedkin knew that AIDS was coming in the next year. Both films were warnings against promiscuous sex and the consequences of it, which was death.

They say that people and animals can sense when something really bad is about to happen. I think DePalma and Friedkin sensed it before it occurred.

r57 = MARY!!!

I tried, but I couldn't get past the museum scene which, yes, was shot beautifully. The dialogue felt so stilted and silly and I literally burst out laughing at Angie loudly moaning in the back of that cab. It felt like De Palma wanted to be Hitchcock with more skin.

An all-time fave. Those of us who were teens and late pre-teens when this movie came on HBO will never forget it.

I hope you see it R4. One of my faves from the 1980s. From a technical level, it's such a mastery of tone, pacing, and camp. Angie Dickinson is fabulous. And the love story between her son and Nancy Allen (who is also fantastic) is touching at times. IMO, peak DePalma. It's right up there with Carrie.

R57, why did you leave out Richard Brooks. Have you not seen Looking for Mr. Goodbar?

I never knew up until now that it was Angie Dickinson in the lead role, I always thought it was the stunningly beautiful actress who played Blanche in The Golden Girls. Just shows that you learn something new everyday…

Great to find a community here on this thread. It is one of my all time favorites as well and I was 15 when I saw it on HBO in 1981. By the way some of you are talking about the film, did anyone else on here take Amos Vogel's film analysis course at the University of Pennsylvania like I did? He spent an entire semester on Dress to Kill.

And just as a side note, Angie Dickinson's name always makes me chuckle when reminded how they used it on HBO's The Comeback. Valerie Cherish goes to her favorite Palm Springs restaurant which has been renovated to appeal to a much younger Hollywood crowd which she is decidedly no longer a part of. She tells the waiter she'll have her usual salad - the "Angie Dickinson." The waiter responds, "Who?"

The museum scene was an elongated copy of similar scenes in Vertigo. When i first saw it I could see myself doing the same museum waltz with Angie and when I got her into my flat there'd be nothing for her to to worry about in my medicine cabinet.

Nice to unwind to at the end of your day..

I was 14 when I first saw this (my mother was completely unaware it was an R-rated film and let me stay up and watch it when I told her it was a Hitchcock style thriller) and fell deeply in love with Keith Gordon, who, upon a recent re-watching, puts in a great performance and looks almost ethereal.

Oddly, he lost this quality super-quick - he's still fragile-looking (and very effective) in Christine, but when paired with RDJ in Back to School, he looks oddly rodentish and comes off as a cold fish (although anyone compared to a teenage RDJ has an uphill battle to contend with).

Have heard Gordon is very cool in real life.

It’s an interesting flick. Even watching it in 2022. The tranny and of course Miss Angie Dickinson!!!!

An homage to Hitchcock, I also first saw it on cable tv at a friend's house, and thought it was great. So much sexual imagery, I thought Keith Gordon was geeky nerdy cute, Nancy Allen was very saucy and sexy, she had a body on her and looked great in all her clothes, and out of them. lol I was 14 yo, horny and green, but that movie sure made an impression on me. I still re-watch it on a regular basis...

I can't believe that Angie potentially exposed her husband and family to monkeypox by sleeping with that stranger.

I thought this was the sexiest and naughtiest movie I'd ever seen as a kid. It made me fall in love with Brian De Palma. I'd seen Carrie and loved it, but this and Blow Out really sealed the deal. I've never understood why people always say he's a ripoff artist. He steals from other films, but always runs the other way and goes to places Hitchcock never could at the time. They might share thematic similarities, but I don't think Psycho and Dressed to Kill feel like the same movie at all. Dressed to Kill has this weird, dreamy feel to it almost like De Palma fell asleep after watching a lot of softcore porn, Psycho, and a handful of Dario Argento movies and then woke up and wrote this.

Nasty,ugly and weird film. Miss Dickinson is badly photographed and looks greasy and dried the fuck out simultaneously on the screen.

This theme was explored more interestingly the original Psycho. Hitchcock may have hated women but he photographed them with expertise.

R71 John Simon!!!

You're alive!!!!

DePalma's CARRIE also starts with a soft focus shower scene that ends in (a different kind of) blood -

Dressed to shit

That’s how I’m dressed today

Just recently got Pino Dinaggio's score on vinyl and have had it stuck in my head for weeks - great score

Angie is gorgeously photographed in the film R71 and has always said it was one of her favorites.

Angie looks beautiful in the film. Although, seeing her actual ass when she gets up from the bed in her trick's apartment after the opening scene with the body double was a bit of a shock.

Can't see how DePalma and tom cruise worked together on the first mission movie.. seems like two polar opposites....both control freaks though I guess is one common attribute..

De Palma doesn't seem like a control freak. He knows what he wants and how he wants his shots to look, but actors seem to enjoy working with him and have said he does allow them the freedom to do what they want with their characters, blocking, and even improvise a bit.

Aside from the fact that it's beautifully shot, it's worth watching just as a portrait of a New York City that doesn't exist anymore.

Yes r80. It really captured the sleaziness of NYC at that time.

R80. The subway shots were great; posters visible of many Broadway shows I remember from that time. Also brought back how dangerous the subway was then (and sadly getting back to that now.)

And the start of the subway scene there's glimpses of posters for Annie, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, A Chorus Line, Peter Pan, and Nancy runs right by the cool poster for Fosse's DANCIN. Brief but adds to the atmosphere of New York in 1980.

You know Nancy must've been sat-is-fied gettin that raunchy De Palma bearcock every night.

Not that satisfied, they split a few years later.

I do find it strange that neither Allen not De Palma have ever mentioned what caused the split. It's been alluded to that De Palma's real love would always be filmmaking and no one could some between them. It sounds very Sunday in the Park with George.

2015 interview with a Nancy.

Angie Dickinson, writing a grocery list, in the art museum was hilarious. She looked up and saw a statue of huge gorilla with huge balls. She wrote "nuts" on the grocery list.

R77 she’s done a bit of nudity throughout her career before DTK. Nothing too graphic though. I wasn’t shocked. Totally appropriate for her character in this.

WHET to Nancy Allen? and speaking of "allens" where is Karen Allen?

Karen Allen is randomly one of the people Ethan Hawke has narrating letters and such in the Paul Newman doc -- she does the voice of Joanne Woodward's mother I think? It's very random, made me wonder have Hawke and KA ever worked together before? Nothing comes up when I google it, wonder how they know each other

The Angie Dickinson elevator murder scene is a masterclass of directing. They don't show it anymore because of the trans brigade.

The Angie-In-The-Elevator scene was So Obvious that I turned to my friend....mind you, the first ten minutes of the film....and told her who the killer was. She denied it. Guess what. Surprise?? (not really). Stupid movie.

It's so weird to imagine a movie like this getting a wide release and doing really well. It's such a strange movie. Not at all like your usual slasher or thriller movie.

[quote]This movie and Cruising seemed to foretell a sinister sexual atmosphere that was lurking in NYC in 1980. It's almost as if DePalma and Friedkin knew that AIDS was coming in the next year.

It's interesting that the first two gay themed movies released in 1980 were Windows and Cruising. Both very negative, dark portrayal of the gay community. It really does set an ominous tone for what is about to follow

Brian DePalma was originally set to direct Cruising. In fact the whole cruising scene in the museum in DTK was based upon ideas he had for directing Cruising. You can't help but wonder how his version would have turned out.

Dr. Elliott: Because I'm a doctor, and-- Liz: Fucked a lot of doctors.. Dr. Elliott: And I'm married. Liz: Fucked a lot of them, too.

Karen Allen is around. She was up for an Independent Spirit Award like 2 years ago for a small film she did and was pretty good.

Angie: Do you find me attractive?

Michael: Yes, I do.

Angie: Do you want to have sex with me?

Michael: Yes.

Angie: Then why don't you?

Slant always does the best De Palma reviews.

"No, what we have here is the work of a director who saw the charred aftermath of the sexual revolution’s late-‘70s bust and thought, “I should cast my wife as a hooker again. A real Park Avenue whore.” Who, instead of taking a gritty, hard-on look at the twisted bi-curious ground shared by Ms. 45, Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, and Walter Hill’s The Warriors, inflates paperback pulp psychology into something like a plot, all the better to demonstrate that filmmaking is an inherently visual storytelling. Who is justifiably confident enough in his craft that he can limit himself to two schools of dialogue: soap-opera exposition and silence. Who, to paraphrase Kael, could turn a seamy museum pick-up into an accelerated, 10-minute Dangerous Liaisons. The pleasures of Dressed to Kill flat out do not translate to print, but for what it’s worth, it’s the most perfectly-directed film ever, provided that you, like me, bust into orgasmic laughter when De Palma’s double-shuffling editing makes it seem like the only threat Nancy Allen and a wooden cop can see boarding the subway is a 250-pound bag lady."

R88 The last thing she wrote on her grocery list was "Pick up turkey." Regrettably, her character in the movie did.

Dressed To Kill is currently streaming for free on Tubi, I just watched it again because of this thread.

No.

Psycho ripoff.

No good.

Boo! R101 Boo!

The plot doesn’t totally hold together, but as a visual experience, it’s one of my go to films.

That shot of Nancy near the end in Elliott’s office where here eyes look so electric blue is stunning.

I saw it first run on the big screen. Mesmerizing imagery from start to finish.

I only like the white in white costume of Miss Dickinson. Hate the hair, makeup and sound effects.

Too much cocaine was consumed by the filmmakers during the production of the film.

Hate it.

white on white

^You type on cocaine....

R105 r106 sucks

Fuck you too. That film stinks

That shower scene where he grabs her pussy...is hot!

The version on Tubi is only the R rated cut and it barely looks like dvd quality (a lot of scratches).

Not every film is for every...one.

It always looked like the dream rapist in the opening was fisting Angie from behind. I never knew what was going on. Great movie and one of the most beautifully shot thrillers/horror movies I've ever seen. Everything's so gauzy and hazy like a dream. If it were to come out today, young film nerds raised on that horrible orange/teal lighting/color correction style would probably think it looked terrible.

[quote]R33 Little known fact. [bold]Doris Roberts [/bold]was originally cast as the female lead but clashed with Brian De Palmer over her characters motivation and walked off. Angie Dickinson was brought in to reshoot.

People always get that story wrong.

It was Sada Thompson.

Doris Roberts? The secretary from Remington Steele? The mom from shitty Raymond?

I like Kael's description of it as "a suspense comedy about sex and fear."

The choices were apparently Jill Clayburgh and Liv Ullman. They both turned De Palma down.

Nancy Allen was so pretty in this.

Nancy and Donald Pleasance host a well edited collection of horror and thriller movie scenes, including Dressed to Kill.

Do you prefer Dressed to Kill or Blow Out?

I think I prefer DTK because it's sexier and has a slightly more interesting storyline to me, but they're both two of my favorite films from the 80s.

As others have said, Dressed To Kill really captures the sleaze and danger of NYC in that time period.

The ending of Blow Out really strains credibility. Why the fuck would he let her go on her own with the film (even with a wire, considering that a person he put a wire on in the past ended up getting murdered) when he knows that they’re both caught in the middle of a conspiracy and could end up getting rubbed out?

Great movie and wonderfully describes the danger cross dressing might lead to

Oh do fuck off R123.

And Se7en wonderfully describes the danger Christianity might lead to.

Dressed to Kill and Blow Out are so different to me. I could never pick a favorite. I do think the last 10 minutes of Dressed to Kill, as masterful as they are, don't really need to be there. That final dream sequence is great and very suspenseful, but it just seems like De Palma ran out of ideas and thought "hey, that last scene in Carrie really got them talking. What if I did that again, but stretched it to 10 minutes?" Blow Out does have a more concise gut puncher of an ending. I cried the first time I saw it as a kid and still tear up whenever I rewatch it. Mary, I know!

I wonder who they wanted for the part before settling for Miss Anjuh Dickinson.

I could sort of imagine Stella Stevens in the part.

Sheree North!

The two choices before Angie Dickinson were Jill Clayburgh and Liv Ullman. Ullman also apparently turned down an offer to play a murderess in Dario Argento's Phenomena. She wasn't a fan of violent movies.

Clayburg and Ullman were way hotter in the movies than Dickinson. There had to be more names between the former two and the latter.

[quote]R126 I wonder who they wanted for the part before settling for Miss Anjuh Dickinson.

As stated above, Sada Thompson shot several scenes with Keith Gordon as well as the shower sequence. De Palma was not pleased with the results and only then we’re other actresses were considered.

Sada sported the waxed look long before it came into fashion.

Does anyone have a source for the Sada Thompson casting? I can’t find anything online and it seems unlikely that ABC would’ve let her make this movie while she was on Family…

It was a theatrical release, so no competition for FAMILY.

Her scenes were scheduled while FAMILY was on hiatus.

Sure, that’s convincing…

First Kate Jackson losing out on KRAMER VS. KRAMER, and then Sada...

It’s a little different, because Thompson got her ass fired. Kate Jackson didn’t even get to shoot any scenes. If she had she’d have that Oscar, and Streep’s career now.

Meryl would still be stuck with Shakespeare in Central Park.

Of course, Lucy received an offer from DePalma and the two were in correspondence in the pre-production, De Palma says she sent Polaroids to show she wouldn't need a body double for the shower scene, but apparently at the last minute she was advisied with going forward with the project because of tv persona.

Blow-Out cost almost three times what Dressed to Kill did to make, but made less than 1/2 @ the box office.

The Sada/Lucy trolls are insufferable.

Hun, this movie isn’t that good. Don’t take it so seriously.

Lucy or Sada would have livened things up considerably.

Linda Lavin should have gotten the Angie part.

No praise for Michael Caine?

I coulda sung a helluva love theme song too!

There was talk that Angie would be nominated but it didn't happen.

John Travolta should have been nominated for Blow Out. Might be his best performance.

I never understood why Angie's character was cheating on her uber hot husband. He was one hot DILF.

He pleasured himself, not her.

[quote]r145 I coulda sung a helluva love theme song too! — LL

Bah-dah-boo-BAH!

r147 he was a two pump chump. He couldn't satisfy her sexually, it was all about him getting off and not her.

I always saw Anissa Jones in the role of Sally, as far as “Blow Out” is concerned. She’d have been 23.

Lee Remick would have been nominated.

They were originally going to make Blow Out as a much smaller scale, gritty indie movie, but De Palma was talking to Travolta one day and he'd mentioned the idea and Travolta wanted to play Jack and that was that. Because of Travolta's star power at the time, it became a much bigger film and the studio decided for a summer release which everyone involved thought killed its chances of box office success because it wasn't exactly a feel good blockbuster kind of movie. It was Travolta's idea to bring in Nancy Allen as well. He loved working with her on Carrie and this role wasn't written with her mind unlike the role in Dressed to Kill.

I had no idea Dressed To Kill grew out of Nancy Allen's mind.

Did they not approach Lee Remick because they didn’t have the budget?

While I won't say Nancy is any kind of great actress, she is effective in the right role. It always breaks my heart in this scene at 2:22 when a single tear runs down her face during the line, " I didn't really have to do anything like screw 'em or anything..." The clip is only standard def, it's easier to see in HD. A moving performance, it's harder to play a dim character than you'd think, and Allen did a great job.

When did Nancy and DiPalma get together?

De Palma was dating Lee Remick while preparing Carrie, but became attracted to Nancy Allen during shooting. Remick went to England to shoot The Omen and De Palma asked Allen out when their shooting wrapped.

R156, I think Allen's really great in Blow Out, too. She's very sweet in it and my heart always breaks for her.

I love Lee Remick, a solid actress and a great beauty. But she projects a kind of authority that is wrong for Liz. Nancy has the sexiness and a certain false confidence and vulnerability that was perfect for Liz in Dressed to Kill.

I thought Remick would have been more in line for Kate. That is, if she was ever considered for the role which I doubt she was.

Why? She had been reduced to TV Movies of the Week by then?

Remick would have made a great Kate, but almost seems too strong and smart for it. Angie has a confused, unsure quality that works well for the character, especially in the museum. I can't imagine Remick letting herself get caught up in the cat and mouse aspect of it. Angie takes the bait, as it were, more realistically with a relatable innocence.

But didn't Remick get caught up in alcoholism, not to mention selling her soul to Phil Silvers?

Remick didn’t think they should work together on Carrie while they were involved (De Palma wanted her for Sue) and then later, considering their history, she turned down both Kate and Sally.

Remick is a big part of why De Palma and Allen split.

Where did someone hear that Remick & De Palma ever dated? link please

Everyone knows.

Did Edie McClurg audition for Kate or Liz?

Edie was up for "Bobbi".

No word about Gene Kelly and John Belushi who were both considered for Michael Caine's part when George Cukor was attached to direct? Belushi shot the elevator scene in drag. But he was too drugged so they wanted to replace him with Kelly. Then Cukor directed RICH AND FAMOUS instead and Kelly didn't want to work with De Palma because he despised the "filth" of that generation's New Hollywood. Gene Kelly then buried his film career with XANADU in the same year. If you write DL fantasies please use males from time to time, it's not that hard.

I don't know what happened to Nancy Allen. She seemed to have a solid career up to the ROBOCOP trilogy into the early 1990s. I've last seen her in a little part in 2001's CIRCUIT, she aged well (despite a battle with cancer). Her last IMDb credit is from 2008. She's now 72 and should be rediscovered.

Belushi insisted on Carrie Fisher for Liz.

Nancy Allen had a small part in Soderbergh's "Out of Sight." She was more human than J.Lo.

Liv Ullmann seems a very strange choice for Kate. I can understand Jill Clayburgh because De Palma used her in The Wedding Party back in 1969 but Liv Ullmann??

The casting troll is tiresome.

Jo Anne Worley as Bobbi!

I'd rather JoAnn than Katrina Lenk.

Ann-Margret would have been wonderful as Kate. Maybe even better than Angie?

That opening sex scene is supposed to show her husband is a bad lover but it looks pretty good to me.

I thought Angie was perfect.

Love Nancy Allen. She's great in both Dressed to Kill and Blow Out. She also seems like a lovely person if you watch her interviews for the Blu Ray for I Wanna Hold Your Hand.

I like Nancy Allen but she was limited as an actress, at least at the time. If she wasn't sleeping with the director I doubt if she'd have been cast. She does an appealing Girl Nextdoor quality.

Can't decide if she was supposed to be the 'comic relief' in the film or she just thinks every movie is a comedy. Depalma's films usually have some macabre humor.

Doris Day would have been an interesting choice in Angie's role.

Yeah, she’d have rushed RIGHT out of retirement to get sliced up in THIS dreck!

Doris didn't mind the public observing her nipples.

“Would you like to touch me?”

AVC: Do you have a favorite of the four movies you made with him?

NA: No, not really. Carrie was special because it was my first significant role in film, and it was an amazing experience. Home Movies was kind of fun because I got to do something really silly. And Dressed To Kill was written for me, so that was a nice surprise, because it’s wondrous to have something written for you. And Blow Out I came to love because, you know, what an extraordinary cast to work with. And to take a character that I didn’t really quite like, and make it work for me and find something that I really liked about her… that’s always fun and interesting. But they’re each special to me in their own way.

Keith Gordon gives his own reading of the film.

I first saw the film in a college screening. I had been afraid to see it having heard about it as a slasher film but was taken on a date (!). When the museum scene started I got hooked and never wanted that scene to end. But when Kate realizes she forgot her wedding ring in the stud's apartment and had to go back for it, I knew she would die. .

I just rewatched this since getting the 4K disc that was released last year. It is a strange film, but I find it extremely entertaining and well done. There are some fantastic sequences in it that are unforgettable, Hitchcock ripoff or not. Nancy Allen, who is mediocre at best, is actually pretty good in this I think. I'd rate it as De Palma's second-best movie after "Carrie"—"Sisters" comes in third for me, and I can give or take the rest for the most part. I know "Body Double" is much beloved, but I think "Dressed to Kill" is a better movie.

The museum scene is extraordinary, but Bobbi's modus operandi leaves me puzzled. How does she know where Angie's character was going after the museum? Sure, she saw Angie enter the cab...but that's not enough to go on (unless there's a scene that makes clear Angie is followed that I somehow missed).

Keith Gordon's character is even stranger. He seems completely unsexed in the face of Nancy Allen in a way you wouldn't expect a teenage boy to be (unless he's supposed to be gay), his take on his mother's death is straight out of an Italian giallo (i.e. bland surprise) and what the hell is going on with his hair?

R151 she was dead as a door nail years before this movie went into production. Plus nobody would work with a known druggie for insurance reasons.