Dressed to Kill (1980)

Dressed to Kill is a 1980 suspense thriller/horror film written and directed by Brian de Palma. It stars Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson and Nancy Allen. 

The original music score is composed by Pino Donaggio. The film is marketed with the tagline "Brian de Palma, master of the macabre, invites you to a showing of the latest fashion... in murder." It centers on the murder of a housewife, and the investigation headed by the witness to the murder, a young prostitute, and the housewife’s teenaged son.

The film was the target of some backlash from the gay and transgender communities, who felt that its portrayal of transgender people was misguided and homophobic. The film is rated R by the MPAA and runs at 105 minutes.

Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) is a sexually frustrated housewife and mother, living in the suburbs of New York, who is in therapy with New York City psychiatrist Dr. Robert Elliott (Michael Caine). During an appointment with Dr. Elliott, Kate attempts to seduce him, at which point Elliott rejects her advances. Later that day, Kate goes to the Metropolitan Museum and for ten minutes without any dialog has an unexpected flirtation with a mysterious stranger. Kate and the stranger "stalk" each other through the museum until they finally wind up outside, where Kate joins him in a taxicab. They immediately begin to have sex in the back of the cab, and their experience continues at his apartment.

Later, Kate awakens and discreetly leaves while the man is asleep, but not before she rifles through some of his papers and discovers that he has a sexually transmitted disease. Mortified, Kate leaves the apartment and gets in the elevator, but on the way down she realizes that she's left her wedding ring on the stranger's nightstand. She rides back up to retrieve it, but the elevator doors open on the figure of a large, imposing blonde woman in dark sunglasses wielding a straight razor. She slashes Kate to death in the elevator.

Prostitute Liz Blake (Nancy Allen) happens upon the body and catches a glimpse of the killer, therefore becoming both the prime suspect and the killer's next target. Dr. Elliott receives a bizarre answering machine message from "Bobbi", a transsexual he is treating. Bobbi taunts Dr. Elliott for breaking off their therapy sessions, apparently because Dr. Elliott refuses to sign the necessary papers for Bobbi to get a sex change operation. Elliott eventually becomes desperate, visiting Bobbi's new psychiatrist and trying to convince him that Bobbi is a danger to herself and others.

Meanwhile, the police are less than willing to believe Liz's story, and she joins forces with Kate's son Peter (Keith Gordon) to expose the killer. Peter is an inventor, and he uses a series of homemade listening devices and time-lapse cameras to track patients from Elliott's office. They catch Bobbi on camera leaving Elliott's office, but Liz is being stalked by a tall blonde figure in a wig and sunglasses. Bobbi makes several attempts on her life, one of them being thwarted by Peter, who rescues Liz in the nick of time by spraying Bobbi in the New York City Subway with some homemade mace.

Finally Liz and Peter scheme to get into Elliott's office to look at his appointment book and get Bobbi's name. Liz baits Dr. Elliott by coming on to him, and distracts him long enough to make a brief exit and rifle through his appointment book. When she returns, Bobbi rather than Elliott confronts her; they are the same person. Elliott/Bobbi is shot and wounded by the female police officer who looks like Bobbi and has been trailing Liz. Liz recognizes the female cop as the tall blonde figure who was tracking her all along. Elliott is arrested by the police and placed in an insane asylum.

 It is explained by a psychiatrist that Elliott wanted to be a woman, but his "male" side wouldn't allow him to go through with the operation. Whenever a woman sexually aroused Elliott, "Bobbi", who represents the female side of the doctor's personality, became threatened and killed the source of contention. In the film's final sequence, Elliott escapes from the asylum and slashes Liz in the throat in a bloody act of vengeance, and she wakes up screaming, realizing that Elliot's attack was just a dream.