Sightlines · reception
How Dressed to Kill was received
1980 · Brian De Palma · Dressed to Kill on Sightlines
The arc
In 1980 it was a scandal — picketed by feminist groups, trimmed to dodge an X rating, and split critics down the middle even as Pauline Kael championed it. Today it's canonized as peak De Palma, complete with a Criterion edition and regular 'best thrillers of the 80s' placements.
What’s debated
The forever-war: is De Palma's Hitchcock riffing brilliant transformation or glorified imitation — and can you love the style while wincing at the film's gender politics?
Its footprint
The near-wordless museum seduction sequence is one of the most referenced set-pieces in thriller cinema — a go-to exhibit whenever anyone argues for 'pure cinema' or ranks great dialogue-free scenes.
Where it stands
A cinephile touchstone: routinely cited alongside Blow Out as the heart of De Palma's golden run, and a rite of passage for anyone working through the 'New Hollywood brats'.
Did you know? Angie Dickinson had a body double for the opening shower scene — Penthouse Pet of the Year Victoria Lynn Johnson — a fact that became part of the film's lore and feeds neatly into De Palma's own obsessions with doubling and voyeurism.
Named by the director
- Psycho (1960) — De Palma openly acknowledged the film as his riff on Psycho — the blonde protagonist, the shower, the mid-film rug-pull are all deliberate borrowings.
- Alfred Hitchcock — De Palma has spent his career citing Hitchcock as his master, calling him the director who codified the grammar of pure visual suspense he set out to extend.