MovieChat Forums > Dressed to Kill (1980) Discussion > Angie Dickinson's Husband

Angie Dickinson's Husband

posted 15 years ago by Mark_Graisons_Moustache
27 replies | jump to latest

Boy, you wanna talk about having pretty much no personality or relevance to a movie, let's take a look at Angie's husband.

Okay, so he's a pig who has sex with her while she fakes it, smacks her on the cheek, and then climbs out of bed and heads for the shower.

But what else?

After his wife is brutally slashed to death in an elevator, he shows remarkably little emotion. In fact, we never even see him again after he leaves the police station.

And then.....

"Mike's out of town on a business trip." So sayeth Keith Gordon to Nancy Allen near the end of the film. This is mere days after the death of his wife! What kind of sick business is gonna be like, "You know, Mike, we're real sorry about your wife being brutally murdered, but that business trip just can't wait."

"They're all homosexuals who have been castrated!"

[–] josebut8 15 years ago

How about when she calls him after she's been missing for seven hours and didn't show up for lunch and he's calmly watching the football game and doesn't ask if it's her. I mean a selfish lover is one thing, but that guy was...wait a minute...that guy was the victim of lousy writing!

[–] preppy-3 15 years ago

Yeah--there was nothing wrong with the actor just the script. DePalma was more interested in camera angles, nudity and violence. A coherent script was the last thing on his mind.

[–] gnolti 15 years ago

preppy, you are spot on about De Palma. Much as I think DTK was his last really great film, it also contains the seeds of the frigid, purely technical style that gradually ruined his movies.

Mike gets a bad rap because Angie later admits that he's lousy in the sack; if that's so, why does she fake her orgasms, which could only keep him deluded about his sexual prowess?

There, daddy, do I get a gold star?

[–] preppy-3 15 years ago

First off thanks for the compliment gnolti:)

And as for Angie faking her orgasms and NOT telling her husband he's lousy in bed--that's hardly unusual baehavior for most women:)

[–] gnolti 15 years ago

Black Dahlia s.u.c.k.e.d.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.

There, daddy, do I get a gold star?

[–] preppy-3 15 years ago

Hey--it was better than "Femme Fatale"!:)

[–] plasmic_steve 10 years ago

Worst movie I've seen in the last ten years, and I've seen many. But I love Dressed to Kill, despite what might be seen as its flaws.

[–] RugGuy 13 years ago

DePalma is a talented director, but he doesn't know a bad script when he reads one.

[–] preppy-3 13 years ago

Too true. His visuals are incredible but the scripts...

[–] SnoozeAlarm 12 years ago

>>> DePalma is a talented director, but he doesn't know a bad script when he reads one

Reads? He wrote this.

Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoilers!

[–] RugGuy 12 years ago

If you follow the thread I was interfering to Femme Fatale specifically, which he also wrote. I'll re qualify my statement.

DePalma is a talented director, but in many cases he doesn't know a bad script when he reads or writes one. However give him a good script like DTK, Scarface or The Untouchables and he'll create a magnificent movie.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] RugGuy 12 years ago

DTK is a timeless classic.

BO had a good conecpt but doesn't hold up well logically. I watched it recently and was very surprised at that. The whole flip page concept is not plausible and in the third act the intelligent paranoid Travolta becomes dumb and trusting.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] RugGuy 12 years ago

I collect them. I'm not an expert by any means

[–] redcelluloid 9 years ago

You're not the only one to bring up the implausibility of the flip page reconstruction in Blow Out. That much I can I suspend disbelief for mainly because the direction and editing in that sequence is superb. However, I completely agree about the third act.

[–] LeonardPine 9 years ago

I used to really look forward to DePalma's films, i think his last good film was Mission Impossible.

Do his films even get released at the cinema anymore?

Was it a millionaire who said "Imagine no possessions"?

[–] gnolti 15 years ago

"The husband was a loser. That's why she jumped into bed with another guy. Makes sense to me."

Better off in bed with a loser than bleeding to death in an elevator.

There, daddy, do I get a gold star?

[–] marcchanois 15 years ago

her husband isn't worse than an average white man....it's the wife is too sexually hungary that she has the potential to be a mudshark....

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] JoeLoebner 15 years ago

Mike was a jerk.

[–] HolyCloud 14 years ago

erhaps dePalma was trying to set up the husband as a depersonalized false suspect for the audience.

not that I'm a deplama fan in particular

______
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,,1069122,00.html

[–] Zuider_Zee 12 years ago

He was married to a two-timing tramp so there really is no reason to fault him for not being a perfect husband.

[–] mecahill 10 years ago

He was completely generic and forgettable. His face barely registered with the movie audience.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] bizzach34 9 years ago

The husband was entirely beside the point, a non-entity. He was meant to be dressing for her problems, not a real character.

Some call it lazy writing, I call it efficient. He's an afterthought; the movie isn't about the men at all.