|
Dressed to Kill (1980)
In Brian De Palma's erotic Hitchcockian thriller:
- the slow-motion opening sado-masochistic sequence
in which upper-class New Yorker and frustrated, sexually-unsatisfied
wife Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) pleasured herself in the soapy
shower - she was suffering from a vivid erotic fantasy of being
taken, while enduring unsatisfactory sex (a "wham-bang special")
with her husband in their bedroom
The Opening Shower Fantasy-Rape Sequence
|
|
|
|
- the brilliant 10-minute sequence in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art of Kate's cat-and-mouse flirting with a nameless
stranger (Warren Lockman (Ken Baker))
- the sequence of Kate's taxi-cab seduction en route
to the man's apartment (and left her panties in
the taxi)
- the horrific murder sequence in the elevator of a
high-rise apartment building when she was brutally assaulted by a
black-coated woman (spoiler: her transsexual psychologist Dr. Robert
Elliott (Michael Caine)) in a blonde wig and dark glasses wielding
a sharp straight-edged razor
Kate Miller's Elevator Slashing Murder
|
|
|
|
- the murder of Kate was witnessed by high-class
prostitute Liz Blake (Nancy Allen); determined to solve the murder,
Liz found herself questioning Kate's psychologist/counselor Dr.
Robert Elliott; Liz and Kate's clever son Peter (Keith Gordon)
schemed together to set up traps to track Dr. Elliott's patients;
at one point, they entered Elliott's office where Liz sexily stripped
down to her black lingerie, when she was attacked by the knife-wielding "Bobbi"
The Concluding Shower Scene - A Nightmare
|
|
|
|
|
- in the remarkably tense finale - a plot-twisting shower
nightmare scene experienced by Liz - she dreamed that the insane
and vengeful doctor had escaped from a mental hospital after strangling
a nurse, and wore the nurse's white shoes as disguise; he killed
her with a sharp razor blade after she had stepped out of a shower
-- similar to the violent rape/sex fantasy scene in the film's opening
shower scene - however, Liz woke up screaming (and holding her neck)
to end the film
|
Museum of Art Flirtation and Taxi-Cab Seduction
Liz Blake (Nancy Allen)
|