High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Dressed to Kill is a 1980 suspense 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. In addition, de Palma was accused of being misogynistic by feminist groups. At the time of its release, critics clashed over whether the film was a stylistic evolution of Brian de Palma's work, or simply a re-imagining of themes and concepts lifted from Hitchcock's Psycho.