Production History (Body Double) Body Double

De Palma conceived the film as a deliberate provocation after Scarface

After the commercial success of Scarface (1983), Brian De Palma (Body Double) had the leverage to make whatever he wanted. He described his intentions with characteristic bluntness:

"If this one doesn't get an X, nothing I ever do is going to. This is going to be the most erotic and surprising and thrilling movie I know how to make... I'm going to give them everything they hate and more of it than they've ever seen." — Brian De Palma, The Philadelphia Inquirer (February 1984)

What he wanted was a film that fused two Hitchcock plots, featured explicit sexuality, included a graphic power-drill murder, and detoured through the Los Angeles pornography industry. He co-wrote the screenplay with Robert J. Avrech, a screenwriter De Palma discovered through an unlikely channel. Avrech had written and directed a low-budget horror film called Blood Bride, but it was a different script that caught De Palma's attention — a drama called Geshem Barzel (The Steel Rain) about three women whose husbands were on the front lines during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. De Palma's agent had the script. De Palma had no interest in making it, but he liked the writing enough to invite Avrech to his Greenwich Village office and pitch a Hitchcock-inspired thriller. Avrech recalled: "I was hugely intimidated by Brian De Palma... for about ten minutes." Both were Hitchcock obsessives, and they screened Rear Window and Vertigo together before writing. (opednews, wikipedia)

Columbia Pictures financed the film, reportedly giving De Palma a budget of approximately $10 million — modest even by 1984 standards, but reflecting the studio's awareness that this was risky material. De Palma was conscious of pushing the studio's comfort level:

"Do you think the guys who run Coca-Cola want publicity about violence?... They're not showmen. They're corporation types." — Brian De Palma, The Boston Globe (October 1984)

Filming locations grounded the film in Los Angeles

Body Double was shot entirely in and around Los Angeles, and the locations are integral to the film's themes:

Location	Use in film
The Chemosphere House (7776 Torreyson Dr, Hollywood Hills)	Sam Bouchard's apartment — the voyeur's perch
Rodeo Collection, 421 Rodeo Drive	The upscale mall where Jake follows Gloria through white marble hallways
Tail o' the Pup, Barney's Beanery, LA Farmer's Market	Various LA landmarks establishing Jake's wandering
Hollywood Tower / Hollywood Freeway	Jake's world before Sam's apartment
Tower Records	Pop culture landmark appearance
Beach Terrace Motel, Long Beach	The beach kiss / tunnel sequence
Spruce Goose dome	Production set pieces
Various Hollywood studios	The vampire film and porn film sets

Every location reinforces the voyeurism theme — the city itself is built for display. (movie-locations, imdb)

Stephen Burum's first De Palma collaboration

Stephen Burum shot the film, beginning a partnership with De Palma that would span eight films. See Stephen Burum for details on the visual approach.

The first cut received an X rating from the MPAA

The first cut of Body Double received an X rating from the MPAA, primarily due to The Drill Murder sequence and the film's combination of sexuality and violence. De Palma made cuts to secure an R rating, but the battle became public and fed into the broader 1980s debate about screen violence.

De Palma addressed the drill scene controversy directly:

"It was not my intention to create a sexual image with the drill, although it could be construed that way." — Brian De Palma, People (December 1984)

The X-rating fight echoed the controversy around Dressed to Kill (1980), which had faced similar ratings problems. De Palma was becoming the MPAA's most frequent adversary among major directors.

Pino Donaggio composed the score

Pino Donaggio (Body Double) provided the score — his fourth collaboration with De Palma. The music deliberately echoes Bernard Herrmann's Hitchcock scores while adding Italian romantic lushness.

Joe Napolitano was the first AD across De Palma's peak run

Joe Napolitano served as first assistant director on Body Double, continuing a working relationship that had begun on Blow Out (1981) and continued through Scarface (1983). Napolitano would go on to first-AD The Untouchables (1987) as well, making him part of De Palma's inner circle across the director's most productive decade. He later became a television director in his own right, working on Quantum Leap and The X-Files.

Jerry Greenberg and Bill Pankow cut the film

Jerry Greenberg and Bill Pankow edited the film. Greenberg had won an Academy Award for editing The French Connection (1971) and had previously cut De Palma's Dressed to Kill and Scarface. Pankow's path to the editing room ran directly through Greenberg: he had started as Greenberg's assistant editor on Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), then moved up to associate editor on De Palma's Dressed to Kill and Scarface. When Body Double's schedule required a second editor, Pankow graduated to the chair. He recalled burning out three Moviola motors searching for the right frames. Pankow would become De Palma's primary editor going forward, cutting nine De Palma films from Body Double through Redacted (2007). (filmcomment)