Production History (Dressed to Kill) Dressed to Kill

De Palma wrote the screenplay during early mornings while married to Nancy Allen

Brian De Palma wrote the Dressed to Kill screenplay during early morning sessions around 3 AM while married to Nancy Allen. The script changed almost nothing from its initial draft. De Palma drew openly from Hitchcock's Psycho -- a sympathetic protagonist murdered at the end of Act I, a killer hiding inside a respectable professional, a psychiatrist's exposition to close the case -- and made the borrowing his own by replacing Hitchcock's motel with a Manhattan elevator and Norman Bates's taxidermy with a transsexual alter ego. (wikipedia, cinephilia-beyond)

Liv Ullmann and Sean Connery declined before the final cast was set

De Palma originally approached Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann to play Kate Miller, but she declined because of the violence. Jill Clayburgh was unavailable. The role went to Angie Dickinson, who was 48 at the time of filming and would later call it her favorite role. Sean Connery was offered the part of Dr. Robert Elliott and was enthusiastic about it, but declined because of previous commitments. The role went to Michael Caine, whose agent later reportedly told him: "Michael, you must never do anything like this again, because as a woman you look like crap." (wikipedia, filmstories)

Nancy Allen's casting as Liz Blake was suggested by De Palma after she praised the script. It marked her first leading role in a major studio film. Allen described the working relationship:

"He knew how I operated and how to get the best out of me as an actress." -- Nancy Allen, Cinephilia & Beyond (2015)

Filming ran from October 1979 to January 1980, primarily in New York

The film was shot between October 1979 and January 1980, primarily on location in New York City. The budget was approximately $6.5 million, produced by George Litto through Filmways and Cinema 77. Key New York locations included 162 East 70th Street for Dr. Elliott's office and the Tweed Courthouse at 52 Chambers Street standing in for Bellevue Hospital. See Manhattan Locations (Dressed to Kill) for the full location breakdown. (wikipedia, movie-locations)

Allen described the energy that on-location filming brought to a thriller:

"New York is a rather energetic city, so there's immediately that hum that's under everything you do that really energizes, particularly when you're running around and it's a thriller." -- Nancy Allen, SlashFilm (2015)

The Metropolitan Museum rejected the script, so De Palma moved to Philadelphia

De Palma originally scouted the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the film's centerpiece museum sequence, but the Met rejected the production -- they considered the script in bad taste. Because De Palma grew up in Philadelphia, the interiors were moved to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with New York exteriors maintaining the Manhattan setting. The sequence runs approximately eight minutes with almost no dialogue. See The Museum Sequence for the full analysis. (phillyvoice)

"It's very important when you go to a space to walk around it, take photographs, see what's unique about the space." -- Brian De Palma, Cinephilia & Beyond (2015)

Victoria Lynn Johnson doubled for Dickinson in the shower, and De Palma encouraged the deception

The naked body in the opening shower scene was not Angie Dickinson's but that of model Victoria Lynn Johnson, the 1977 Penthouse Pet of the Year. The producers initially encouraged the then-48-year-old Dickinson to claim the body was hers. Similarly, William Finley voiced Bobbi's answering-machine messages -- neither Michael Caine nor the actress playing the blonde performed them, adding another layer of fragmented identity. The film's subject (a person whose body does not match their identity) was mirrored in its production (a body that does not belong to the actress it represents). (wikipedia)

De Palma storyboarded extensively and treated shooting as execution of a plan

De Palma's method on Dressed to Kill was meticulous pre-production followed by efficient shooting. He storyboarded the visual sequences in detail, treating the camera as the primary storytelling instrument.

"He likes preparing and he loves doing the storyboards, and shooting is just a means to an end for him." -- Nancy Allen, Cinephilia & Beyond (2015)

Keith Gordon, who played Peter Miller and later became a director himself, described what the production taught him about filmmaking:

"Dressed to Kill was all about montage and editing and constructing sequences and building tension." -- Keith Gordon, Senses of Cinema (2004)

Gordon recalled being shocked at how the raw footage transformed in editing:

"I remember seeing that stuff being shot and thinking, 'Oh my God, this looks so embarrassing and not real and stupid and it's not going to be scary.' And seeing the finished scene and not being able to believe the change that it went through." -- Keith Gordon, Senses of Cinema (2004)

Gerald B. Greenberg edited the film, and Ralf D. Bode shot it

Editor Gerald B. Greenberg, who had previously worked on The French Connection (for which he won the Academy Award), Apocalypse Now, and Kramer vs. Kramer, cut the film. Greenberg would later re-team with De Palma on Scarface. See Ralf D. Bode for the cinematographer's contribution. (wikipedia)

The MPAA initially gave the film an X rating, forcing cuts to the shower and elevator

The film initially received an X rating from the MPAA. Two versions exist: an R-rated theatrical cut and an unrated version approximately thirty seconds longer, with more explicit shower imagery, closer angles on the elevator violence, and additional dialogue. The Criterion and Kino Lorber home video releases have both presented the unrated version as De Palma's preferred cut. (wikipedia)

The elevator murder is what De Palma considers his best

De Palma singled out the elevator sequence as the finest murder scene he ever directed:

"I guess I would have to say Dressed to Kill, the murder in the elevator. I had a very good idea in terms of Bobbi killing Angie and Nancy witnessing it and the use of the mirrors and the slow motion." -- Brian De Palma, The Talks (2015)

"I think that's sort of the bloodiest murder I've ever done." -- Brian De Palma, The Talks (2015)