Home video companies release older movies (called "catalog titles" in the industry) every week and it's easy to sometimes wonder why a specific film is being released. For example, why is the 1980 Brian De Palma film Dressed to Kill coming to Blu-ray Disc? The obvious answer is that the better-known De Palma movie Scarface is also making its Blu-ray debut and Fox Home Entertainment is simply trying to capitalize on this. However, a better answer is that they are looking to tie-in with the recently released book Shock Value by Jason Zinoman. The book, which explores the directors who changed the face of horror in the 1970s, contains a chapter on De Palma and contains some interesting insights into Dressed to Kill. It was because of this book that I was anxious to see the film, having not see it for decades.

Dressed to Kill introduces us to Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson), a woman who is unfulfilled in her marriage and fantasizes about being raped. She expresses these issues to her therapist, Dr. Robert Elliot (Michael Caine) and even comes on to him. Kate then visits an art gallery, where she flirts with a stranger and eventually leaves with him. Following an afternoon tryst, Kate is murdered as she leaves the apartment. Liz (Nancy Allen), an upscale call-girl witnesses the murder, and at the police station, she meets Peter (Keith Gordon), Kate's son. As she's been named a suspect, Liz agrees to help Peter try to identify the killer. Meanwhile, Dr. Elliot suspects that one of his former patients may be involved. As Liz and Peter dig deeper, they soon learn that nothing is as it seems.

When Dressed to Kill was released in 1980, it created controversy on several fronts. First of all, the movie was attacked for the level of sex and violence in it, especially violence towards women. The murders were brutal, and the sexuality in the film seemed especially graphic for a mainstream movie. Much of this was tied to the fact that star Angie Dickinson was known to most as TV's Police Woman and her presence in this was shocking. (I guess those people didn't know about her work in movies like Big Bad Mama.) While groups were attacking De Palma for this, critics were accusing him of, once again, ripping off Hitchcock, given the plot structure and story twists. Of course, all that this did was create more publicity for the movie.

Seen today, Dressed to Kill is still a movie worth noting. The version included on the Blu-ray Disc release is the unrated version and the sexual nature of the opening shower scene is certainly eye-opening, but the murder doesn't come across as being all that graphic. The twists still work and thirty years later, the killer's motivation is still interesting and somewhat original. As Angie Dickinson's star has faded, her involvement in the movie doesn't come across as eyebrow-raising.

The most intriguing thing about the movie is De Palma's direction. Despite being written off by some as simply aping Hitchcock, De Palma was always a fiercely independent director and with Dressed to Kill, he was clearly making the movie that he wanted to make. Who else would include a very long scene with no dialogue where two people follow one another through a museum. De Palma clearly has no problem making the audience wait, knowing that this can create tension. However, this approach can also backfire. In short, De Palma goes back to the well on this technique too many times, so that be the finale, we are tired of his attempts to create suspense and we simply want something to happen. This isn't to imply that it never works -- the climax of the subway chase is handled quite well and is still shocking -- but De Palma's insistence on keeping things at a certain pace is detrimental to the film at times. We also get an example of De Palma's love of split-screen in a sequence which includes two different scenes, one with Liz and one with Dr. Elliot, going on simultaneously via split-screen. De Palma has a reputation for reacting to criticism through his films and it's almost as if he's saying, "You don't like my split-screen, try keeping up with this!"

The comparisons to Hitchcock seem apt, as the movie has some parallels to Psycho, but they shouldn't be used to criticize De Palma. However, watching the movie again, I can't help but wonder if De Palma hadn't been influence by Dario Argento as well, as the way in which some scenes were shot reminded me of the Italian horror legend. Either way, some of Dressed to Kill's power has diminished over the years, but those interested in filmmaking should certainly check it out to see how a visually oriented director handles controversial material.

Dressed to Kill was distracting as Keith Gordon's look made me thing that Harry Potter had wandered into the wrong movie on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc carries an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 37 Mbps. To say that De Palma liked soft-focus would be an understatement, and thus, this transfer has some issues. Soft-focus can often diminish detail and when mixed with an HD transfer, we get an image that looks a bit muddy at times. There is some slight grain here, but white backgrounds reveal digital noise. The colors look pretty good, but they are slightly muted, save for the reds. The light balance is good, as the picture is never to dark or bright. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.2 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are nicely done, especially in the police station scene, where we can hear things happening off-screen. We get some mild subwoofer effects during the thunderstorm in the third act. However, the surround sound effects are too meek, and I actually had to put my ear up to the speaker just to make sure they were there.

The Dressed to Kill Blu-ray Disc contains several extras (most of which were ported from previous releases...I think). "The Making of a Thriller" (44 minutes) (which is called "The Making of Dressed to Kill" on-screen) is an in-depth featurette which offers interviews with De Palma, Dickinson, Allen, Dennis Franz, Gordon, Producer George Litto and Editor Jeffrey Greenberg. The piece explores the film's inception (with De Palma describing from where the ideas came) and then moves into the production. (There's no description of why the cast members were picked.) Mostly through comments from De Palma and Dickinson, we get an analysis of some of the film's most famous scenes, such as the museum pursuit and the first murder. Save for Dickinson complaining about the intricacies of the shoot, the actors all have positive things to say about their experiences. "A Film Comparison: The 3 Versions of Dressed to Kill" (5 minutes) offers side-by-side comparisons of the R-rated, Unrated, and network versions of four of the most graphic scenes from the film. "Slashing Dressed to Kill" (10 minutes) examines the backlash against the film, both by critics and by censors, when addressing the violence in the film. Again, we see the comparisons, but this time, it's accompanied by a discussion about what was cut and why. "Dressed to Kill: An Appreciation by Keith Gordon" (6 minutes) has the actor discussing De Palma's style and how important his visuals are. "Animated Photogallery" is simply a reel of stills. The final extra is the THETRICAL TRAILER for the film.