Dressed to Kill HC by Rick Renner

by Brian De Palma

A psychiatrist's patient is brutally murdered by a mysterious blonde woman with an obviously troubled sexual history. A call girl witnesses it and is now on the murderer's list to kill.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Suspense, Horror

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Bren fall in love with the sea. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Brian De Palma's best works.

Incredibly fast paced with suspense and genuine fear. Dressed to Kill was also a film and pretty good one at that!


SPOILERS:

Impossible to talk about without talking of the ending..so I will leave it here. But this book has a sensational twist and was widely discussed in my household. Highly recommended to all mystery fans.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It stayed close to the movie, which made the characters work well for me, but also had a few little bits and details that were new so I didn't feel like I was just reading a screenplay.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

She reddens her mouth, styles her hair, smoothes her dress, hides her eyes behind dark glasses - drops the razor into her shoulder bag and smiles, thinking 'Elliott ... Elliott, this one's just for you...' Dressed To Kill is a novel that will grip you like the strange, constricted echo of a scream.
I am a big fan of both De Palma and the film itself (which, staggeringly, as I write this is 42 years old!) and I like Black’s writing a lot, so I was curious when I discovered this novelisation (I have to assume De Palma’s credit is contractual). It opens the story up and gives us a bit more behind the characters and they handle the Bobbi angle superbly (should you do spoiler alerts for a story after four decades?). I really enjoyed it, it’s well written with a good pace and it’s made me want to re-watch the film, which is never bad. Very much recommended.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Novelizations — that is, books based on movies — are really weird. I want to like them, as a movie fan, but I have a difficult time with them because they’re often lacking that magical quality that a great film has. Dressed to Kill is a perfect example. (And yes, that movie is a masterpiece and don’t you forget it.) It’s not that the book is badly written, it just tries way too hard to shoehorn character details into a story that is primarily style-driven. Brian De Palma is well-known for his virtuoso directing style, and that is sorely missing here. The dialogue is almost completely different from the film; it’s a lot less snappy. That’s not necessarily Campbell Black’s fault, as novelizations were typically based on early drafts of the script. (For some this is a plus, because you sometimes get to read scenes that didn’t make it into the finished film. But in my opinion, such scenes are usually cut for a reason and they don’t add much except the page count.) The most intriguing aspect of the Dressed to Kill novelization is the fact that Bobbi is an actual character, rather than being relegated to the background as in the film. It’s a little clumsy, but it keeps the book from being a total waste of time.

[Jack Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is 100% the kind of book that has absolutely no business being as good as it is. It builds skillfully and stylishly on the plot and characters of the movie, is written with the consummate skill of a master thriller craftsman, and even though its level of detail does threaten to exacerbate the more egregious lapses of the movie's logic, they're easy to ignore and to be swept along with the ride of totally unashamed, unabashed sex and suspense.

[BRNTerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

MY THOUGHTS/SPOILERS: Cambell Black wrote the novel that's based on Brian De Palma's screenplay. I like the novel better than the film. The novel gives us more background on Bobbi, one of Dr. Robert Elliott's transgendered patients. We get a few flashback scenes of her childhood that aren't in the film. Also not in the film are two scenes of her chatting with men in bars.

I don't like Bobbi's reason for killing. I think the reason's really stupid. I also think Nancy Allen's acting was terrible. I thought the scene where Kate meets the man at the museum lasted far too long and that the scene in the taxi with him on the way from the museum was ridiculous and unnecessary. Her finding out the man had STD's was completely pointless considering she got murdered immediately afterward.

Some differences between novel and film are:

-Kate Myers' (Angie Dickenson) last name was changed to Miller in the film. 

-Near the beginning of the novel, Bobbi leaves a message on Dr. Elliott's answering machine telling him she's stolen something but doesn't say what it is, leaving him to figure out what it is. In the film she says she stole his straight razor.

-The man Kate meets and goes home with was given one more STD in the film than in the novel. In the novel he only has gonorrhea but was given syphilis too in the film.

-The character Norma, Liz's friend, was in the novel visiting Liz and she thought she'd seen the killer in the elevator of Liz's building. That's not in the film at all.

-Dr. Elliott speaks to his wife Anne several times on the phone in the novel but she's only mentioned once in the film and he never speaks to her on the phone.

-The scene in the film where Peter, Liz's fifteen-year-old son, played by Keith Gordon, is in the police station eavesdropping on a conversation, in the novel he's doing it by putting a dirty drinking glass to the wall then putting his ear to it. In the film he's got a listening device attatched to the wall and his ear.

-It's stated in the novel that Liz is twenty-one but ages aren't mentioned for her or Peter in the film.

-Liz's character is softened up a bit in the film. In the novel she's far more foul-mouthed.

-In the film, after the killer is identified, Liz spends time at Peter's house while his stepfather's away, then she has a terrible nightmare. In the novel she only makes plans to have lunch one day with Peter and doesn't go to this house. 

-Major spoiler for the ending of novel- I don't think the ending was a dream Liz was having but I'm not quite sure. She's attacked by Bobbi and, "A dream, Liz thought. A bad dream. In a moment she would wake. Any moment now, she would open her eyes and the dream would be over. But it hadn't yet begun." Her bad dream in the film was clearly a dream. When Bobbi visits her at the end of the novel, that sequence was different than in the film and I don't see it was being an actual dream. So the film had a happy ending and the novel, as far as I'm concerned, didn't, which I like.

I learned that this was similar to the Italian film The Bird With the Crystal Plumage. I watched it. That one was likely inspired by the novel/film Screaming Mimi. In the DVD extras on my edition, no one mentioned this film being inspired by another one.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dressed to Kill, written and directed by Brian de Palma
7 out of 10

Notes and thoughts on other books are available at:

- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/

This is a gripping thriller.
It is included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list:

- http://www.listchallenges.com/new-yor...

The writer and director is the acclaimed Brian de Palma, known for

- Scarface, The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible and other excellent motion pictures

As for the stars, this movie is in a unique position.
Nancy Ellen was nominated for both a prestigious Golden Globe and for a…Razzie Award and the Stinker Bad Movie Award…

Even the fabulous demigod of cinema, Michael Caine has been placed in the embarrassing position of receiving a Razzie nomination.
That is preposterous, for his performance was restrained and challenging, having to play a double role.

After all, Michael Caine has won two Academy Awards and three Golden Globes, with another Twelve nominations for Oscars and Globes!
Obviously, nobody is perfect and given this impressive record, it would be natural, with the wrong script to have a failure.
But this is not the case here.

Michael Caine is Doctor Robert Elliott and Bobby.
Robert Elliott is a psychiatrist.

Kate Miller is one of the patients, complaining about her private life, the sex that she has with her husband.
Unhappy with her marital status and sex life, Kate Miller is encouraged by the analyst to challenge the husband.

The woman meets a stranger in an art gallery and she has what might be a coup de foudre and gets intimate with the man.
It looks like they will have wild sex right in the taxi cab, where panties are off and moaning and panting are in.

After making love with the man, Kate Miller leaves and the elevator is attacked by a woman- apparently.
Slashed repeatedly with a razor, she still moves when the doors open and a man and a woman see her on the floor.

Liz Blake is the witness who has a glimpse at the assassin, in the window of the elevator, just before the door closes.
The detective in charge with the case insists that this Liz Blake is the suspect, because she had the razor in the hand at one point.

During the inquiry, the son of the late Kate Miller, Peter gets involved, spying and listening in on the interrogatory.
He will be crucial in saving the life of the high class escort, this being the “occupation” of the attractive Liz Blake.

The investigator is talking to the doctor and trying to get help from the analyst who is unwilling to cooperate.
Meanwhile, Liz Blake is followed in the subway by the infamous blonde wearing dark glasses and armed with a razor.

Robert Elliot talks about a patient, Bobby, who has taken his razor and is therefore a suspect, but the authorities are not informed.
The audience learns some strange aspects about the patient who wanted a sex change and we immediately make a connection.

Nevertheless, I will not divulge anything beyond a simple suspicion.

The film is good, in spite of the attention it got from the Razzies and the insight into the psychology of the individuals involved is interesting.

[Mikepottz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dangerous schizophrenic is going to take a sharp razor and slash a person all over the body and leave a trail of dripping blood while a bunch of people connected to the murdered person will hunt the killer down. Great twist great story and great movie.

[Alicia Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very powerful book. As a church, we read this book but I ended up not finishing when the church did. This is a book that I need to read again. We all need to remember the armor of God and equip ourselves each & every second of our day.

[Mikel Pfeiffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dressed to Kill may have its faults but I've always found the movie very entertaining so I wanted to read the paperback. It's not too different but it is interesting to see how they capture some of the scenes with words.

[Andrew Kurtz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is vastly superior to the film.

Bobbi is shown visiting bars and flirting with men.

We are not told Bobbi that Bobbi wants to become a woman until near the end of the novel, which adds to the suspense.

Elliott's wife appears in his office, demanding a divorce.

We get a glimpse of Elliot's childhood and earlier years of marriage.

Kate is mauled to the point of beyond recognition.

The end of the novel is not a dream but reality.

[Craig "NEEDS MORE DAMN TIME TO READ !!!!" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, saw the movie first but the book is just as good!

[Marian Reynoso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Por fin lei la historia ahora voy a ver la pelicula y despues decidiré cual es mas impactante!!!

No crei que fuera a pasar al final....eso!!!!

[Γιώργος Μπελαούρης · Rating 2 out of 5]

ψιλοαστεία αλλά βιβλιοθήκη του τρόμου είσαι... έπρεπε να διαβαστεί