If you’re a film fan in New York City–particularly a fan of Alfred Hitchcock–you’ll want to be at Tribeca 92/Y, 2012 92nd Street, tonight for the next installment of the “Bastards of Hitch” program. It’s the last in their series exploring films were by works of the great Master of Suspense.
During August, Tribeca 92/Y has screened Jonathan Demme’s Hitchockian-themed THE LAST EMBRACE, Nicholas Roeg’s mysterious DON’T LOOK NOW and title designer Saul Bass’ PHASE IV. Tonight it’s Brian DePalma’s DRESSED TO KILL (1980).
I think many people might choose DON’T LOOK NOW as the best among the MUBI-sponsored series. But this DePalma film, along with DePalma’s Vertigo-esque OBSESSION, are my two favorite, Hitch-like efforts. DRESSED TO KILL, while it couldn’t quite be mistaken as being directed by Hitch himself, comes very close. Cast as the cool blonde, Angie Dickinson has the same, icy-yet-smoldering sensuality of Kim Novak, while Michael Caine, like Joseph Cotten in SHADOW OF A DOUBT or Robert Walker in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, has just enough edge to his character to make you wonder if he could be a tiny bit off-center.
DePalma’s superb, tour-de-force museum sequence is a highlight of this very disturbing and scary film–a film that is to elevators what PSYCHO is to showers. 
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