Body Double (1984)
Directed by Brian De Palma
After losing an acting role and his girlfriend, Jake Scully finally catches a break: he gets offered a gig house-sitting in the Hollywood Hills. While peering through the beautiful home's telescope one night, he spies a gorgeous woman dancing in her window. But when he witnesses the girl's murder, it leads Scully through the netherworld of the adult entertainment industry on a search for answers—with porn actress Holly Body as his guide.
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9 films that influenced Body Double
What critics say influenced Body Double
Chafing at the then-widespread complaints that he was just a misogynistic Hitchcock knock-off obsessed with graphic violence and nudity, De Palma concocted this hilarious mash-up of “Rear Window” and “Vertigo” that just so happens to be chock full of graphic violence and nudity.
At first, he seems to be doing Stewart in "Rear Window".
In sequences inspired by " Rear Window ," he begins to follow the woman (Deborah Shelton), but he keeps his distance because he's caught in the same dilemma as James Stewart was in the Hitchcock picture: He is, after all, technically a Peeping Tom, and he wouldn't know the woman was in danger if he hadn't been breaking the law.
Just as De Palma's excellent Dressed to Kill was an homage-or-rip-off-take-your-pick of Hitchcock's Psycho, Body Double uses both The Master's Vertigo and Rear Window as its twin starting points and then wanders off in its own delirious direction.
This time out, he most explicitly references a trio of Hitch�s films (Vertigo, Rear Window, and Psycho) that he had previously paid extensive tribute to with better end results (most notably in Obsession, Sisters, Dressed to Kill).
Body Double is another sexed-up Hitchcockian thriller from Brian De Palma that really took a beating from most critics when it opened in the fall of 1984 -- I guess audiences (and critics) in '84 just weren't ready for a movie that borrowed from classic Hitchcock thrillers (Vertigo and Rear Window in particular) containing porn stars and driller killers.
Chafing at the then-widespread complaints that he was just a misogynistic Hitchcock knock-off obsessed with graphic violence and nudity, De Palma concocted this hilarious mash-up of “Rear Window” and “Vertigo” that just so happens to be chock full of graphic violence and nudity.
And then, De Palma switches to ripping off "Vertigo", by having his hero following the mysterious woman.
Just as De Palma's excellent Dressed to Kill was an homage-or-rip-off-take-your-pick of Hitchcock's Psycho, Body Double uses both The Master's Vertigo and Rear Window as its twin starting points and then wanders off in its own delirious direction.
This time out, he most explicitly references a trio of Hitch�s films (Vertigo, Rear Window, and Psycho) that he had previously paid extensive tribute to with better end results (most notably in Obsession, Sisters, Dressed to Kill).
Body Double is another sexed-up Hitchcockian thriller from Brian De Palma that really took a beating from most critics when it opened in the fall of 1984 -- I guess audiences (and critics) in '84 just weren't ready for a movie that borrowed from classic Hitchcock thrillers (Vertigo and Rear Window in particular) containing porn stars and driller killers.
Although Body Double is decidedly of the 1980s, it baldly harkens back to the work of Alfred Hitchcock — particularly Vertigo and Rear Window .
Let's just say that De Palma also pulls a few "Psycho", with a vampire shower scene (don't ask!) and one of the most gruesome murder scenes I've seen.
Just as De Palma's excellent Dressed to Kill was an homage-or-rip-off-take-your-pick of Hitchcock's Psycho, Body Double uses both The Master's Vertigo and Rear Window as its twin starting points and then wanders off in its own delirious direction.
This time out, he most explicitly references a trio of Hitch�s films (Vertigo, Rear Window, and Psycho) that he had previously paid extensive tribute to with better end results (most notably in Obsession, Sisters, Dressed to Kill).
Griffith is the daughter of Tippi Hedren (The Birds, Marnie), so the connection to Hitchcock is again unavoidable, even though Hitch's protagonists in Vertigo and Rear Window (played by Jimmy Stewart) certainly never encountered a girl like Holly Body.
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Although his " Scarface " was more of a serious social commentary, thrilling suspense movies are his specialty, and his credits include " Carrie ," " Obsession ," and " Dressed to Kill ."
Just as De Palma's excellent Dressed to Kill was an homage-or-rip-off-take-your-pick of Hitchcock's Psycho, Body Double uses both The Master's Vertigo and Rear Window as its twin starting points and then wanders off in its own delirious direction.
This time out, he most explicitly references a trio of Hitch�s films (Vertigo, Rear Window, and Psycho) that he had previously paid extensive tribute to with better end results (most notably in Obsession, Sisters, Dressed to Kill).
When De Palma's Dressed to Kill debuted in the summer of 1980, much was made of his using a body double for Angie Dickinson during the nude shots of a shower scene.
Some people favorably note the work he did in the 1970s through the early '90s?1976's "Carrie," 1981's " Blow Out ," 1984's "Body Double," 1992's "Raising Cain"?as the modern-day equivalent of Hitchcock.
Griffith is the daughter of Tippi Hedren (The Birds, Marnie), so the connection to Hitchcock is again unavoidable, even though Hitch's protagonists in Vertigo and Rear Window (played by Jimmy Stewart) certainly never encountered a girl like Holly Body.
Although his " Scarface " was more of a serious social commentary, thrilling suspense movies are his specialty, and his credits include " Carrie ," " Obsession ," and " Dressed to Kill ."
This time out, he most explicitly references a trio of Hitch�s films (Vertigo, Rear Window, and Psycho) that he had previously paid extensive tribute to with better end results (most notably in Obsession, Sisters, Dressed to Kill).
This time out, he most explicitly references a trio of Hitch�s films (Vertigo, Rear Window, and Psycho) that he had previously paid extensive tribute to with better end results (most notably in Obsession, Sisters, Dressed to Kill).
Though Sisters is an undeniably tight homage to Hitchcock from an obviously indebted De Palma, I am still inclined to place it at least a tier below the likes of Dressed to Kill and Body Double.
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“Body Double” teases and explodes those old noir conventions that Kasdan and “Body Heat” hold so dear, simultaneously coating every sinuous camera movement with a slick sheen of totally ’80s gloss.