Critical Reception and Legacy (Dressed to Kill) Dressed to Kill
The film grossed five times its budget and became De Palma's biggest commercial hit
Dressed to Kill opened on July 25, 1980 to $3.4 million from 591 theaters and went on to gross approximately $31.9 million domestically against a $6.5 million budget -- making it the 21st highest-grossing film of 1980 and by far De Palma's most commercially successful thriller at that point. The success gave De Palma the leverage to make Blow Out the following year. (wikipedia)
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Budget | ~$6.5 million |
| Opening weekend | $3.4 million (591 theaters) |
| Domestic gross | ~$31.9 million |
| 1980 ranking | 21st highest-grossing |
David Denby called it the first great American movie of the eighties
The critical response split along the fault line De Palma exploited in every frame -- those who surrendered to the technique and those who resisted it. David Denby set the high-water mark:
"The first great American movie of the '80s." -- David Denby, New York Magazine (1980) (not available online)
Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times agreed:
"The brilliance of Dressed to Kill is apparent within seconds of its opening gliding shot; it is a sustained work of terror -- elegant, sensual, erotic, bloody, a directorial tour de force." -- Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times (1980) (not available online)
Pauline Kael praised the technique as aphrodisiacal
Kael's New Yorker review identified the film's governing pleasure -- pure cinematic sensation, inseparable from the erotic content:
"This sophisticated horror comedy is permeated with the distilled essence of impure thoughts. De Palma presents extreme fantasies and pulls the audience into them with such an apparent ease that the pleasure of the suspense becomes aphrodisiacal." -- Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (1980)
Kael also praised De Palma's technical command:
"His timing is so great that when he wants you to feel something he gets you every time. His thriller technique, constantly refined, has become insidious, jewelled." -- Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (1980)
Ebert gave three stars and called the museum sequence brilliant
Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, praising the technique while acknowledging the film's preference for style over sense:
"Dressed to Kill is an exercise in style, not narrative; it would rather look and feel like a thriller than make sense, but DePalma has so much fun with the conventions of the thriller that we forgive him and go along." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (1980)
"The museum sequence is absolutely brilliant, tracking Dickinson as she notices a tall, dark, and handsome stranger." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (1980)
John Simon dismissed it as sophomoric pornography
Not everyone surrendered. John Simon attacked the film in National Review:
"Sophomoric soft-core pornography" and "sniggering double entendres." -- John Simon, National Review (1980) (paywalled, not verified)
Feminist and LGBTQ groups protested the film upon release
The controversy was immediate and organized. Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media distributed leaflets at screenings:
"The distorted image of a psychotic male transvestite makes all sexual minorities appear sick and dangerous." -- Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media, leaflet distributed at screenings (1980) (not available online)
The Iowa City National Organization for Women picketed the film at the University of Iowa campus. The protests anticipated arguments that would intensify over decades -- see The Gender Politics Controversy for the full history. (wikipedia)
The film holds a mixed-positive aggregate score decades later
The film currently holds an 83% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 60 reviews and a 74/100 on Metacritic -- respectable numbers that reflect the ongoing critical split rather than consensus. (rottentomatoes, wikipedia)
Angie Dickinson won the Saturn Award and said she should have campaigned for the Oscar
Dickinson won the Saturn Award for Best Actress. Nancy Allen received a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year. De Palma and Allen were both nominated for inaugural Golden Raspberry Awards -- Worst Director and Worst Actress, respectively. Dickinson later reflected on the missed opportunity:
"I'm good in it, and it's a great part. I'm sorry I didn't try to go for an Academy Award for that role. I think I could have won it." -- Angie Dickinson, Vanity Fair (2008)
Armond White reframed the film as a gay cinema landmark in 2015
In Out Magazine, Armond White argued that the museum sequence transcends Hitchcock homage to become a dramatization of urban sexual encounter as cultural practice:
"A superb dramatization of urban sexuality -- especially, by-proxy gay sexuality. Cruising was the way people met; where mutual attraction was immediately -- instinctively -- acknowledged." -- Armond White, Out Magazine (2015)
White's reading reframes the museum not as a Hitchcock quotation but as a document of a specific sexual culture -- wordless pursuit through public space, the erotics of looking, the risk of following a stranger home. See The Museum Sequence for the full analysis.
The 2020 documentary Disclosure placed the film in a lineage of transphobic screen images
The Netflix documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (2020) featured Dressed to Kill as part of a broader examination of how Hollywood has depicted transgender characters as dangerous, unstable, and pathological. The film sits alongside Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, and Ace Ventura in this lineage -- each using gender variance as a source of horror. (wikipedia)