Thursday, 28 August 2014

Dressed to Kill

Also Known As:
Unknown
Year:
1980
Country/ies:
US
Predominant Genre:
Mystery
Author(s)/Director(s):
Brian DE PALMA
Best Performance(s):
Nancy ALLEN
Angie DICKINSON
Premiss:
Mysterious, tall blonde woman murders one of a psychiatrist’s patients and then goes after the high-class call girl who witnessed the murder.
Theme(s):
Alienation
Guilt
Loneliness
Original Sin
Sexual Repression
White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Psycho
Review Format:
DVD

Rather contrived homage to Alfred HITCHCOCK - particularly his Psycho - that lacks somewhat in suspense and originality.

What it has, however, are excellent female performances (that these kind of female-in-peril movies usually lack) from Angie DICKINSON and Nancy ALLEN. They make their characters interesting and believable and we feel for them in their terror.

The film also lacks a theme other than the rather silly one of men wanting to be women, but who are refused the necessary sex-change operation and then kill those who are born women in revenge!


Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.