Intrada Soundtrack Forum

INTRADA
Announces:



DRESSED TO KILL
Composed by PINO DONAGGIO
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 246

While director Brian DePalma has worked with several different composers, it is Pino Donaggio to whom he has returned time and again since they first worked together on the director’s 1976 masterpiece Carrie. Donaggio’s romantic, melodic style is the perfect complement to De Palma’s tensely erotic visuals, which inspired the composer to write what is arguably his finest score for the 1980 thriller Dressed to Kill. Donaggio provided lush orchestrations featuring an impressive variety of memorable, fully developed melodies.

To bring this expanded edition of the score to CD, Intrada returned to the 2″ 24-track session masters and newly remixed everything, creating brand new two-track stereo mixes for this release. Almost every cue was present on these elements, stored in beautiful condition in the MGM vaults; only three cues (tracks 1, 2 & 24) needed to be mastered from the existing two-track stereo mixes made back in 1980. While not every cue was accounted for, this release features a bulk of the previously unreleased music.

In the film, Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson), a dissatisfied Long Island house wife, turns an afternoon museum visit into a richly satisfying sexual encounter with a complete stranger. Afterwards, she is brutally murdered in the elevator of her lover's appartment building. Liz Blake (Nancy Allen), a high-priced call girl, is the only witness and she teams with Kate’s grieving son Peter, a budding computer genius. Realizing that the killer is one of Dr. Elliott’s patients, the pair hatches a plot to track her down through the doctor’s records.

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 246
Retail Price: $19.99
Available Now
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.8095/.f

Wow, the sound on the sampled tracks sourced from the 24-track elements is a lot more direct here. I'm sure some find the reverb on the original album to have its enchanting qualities, but I much prefer this presentation. The immediate difference in "Death in the Elevator" is a revelation.

I'm so glad to get this superb score again, I had the original copy but gave it away a couple years ago. I would have bought this version anyway with the expansion and improved sound.

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Robert M Eastman

I own the original as well but will easily upgrade after listening to the samples. Thanks for the extra effort in locating the new material too!

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Top 10 Grails: Revenge of the Ninja/Less Than Zero/Making Contact/Cobra/Over the Top/Highlander/Time Bandits/Top Gun/Listen to Me
Last 5 purchased: Jaws/Jaws 2/Back to the Future II/Back to the Future III/Nightmare Elm Street Box/Amityville Horror

What a fantastic time for scores. Thank you, Intrada, MGM, Pino, and the rest of those involved with this beautiful score. This one is truly a special release.

Thanks for this soundtrack release and the use of the classic artwork! I love the grain look of it also. I don't even want to listen to the audio samples yet.

One of the great Pino Scores finally released in a manner better than I imagined. Now all we need is Tourist Trap.

Another top-notch release Intrada, Keep them coming.

Release of the year. Easy.

I really appreciate reading that listeners prefer the more natural acoustics of the original recording here over the rather heavy-handed artificially created reverb on the original album. I have mentioned often that my preference is for the former over the latter. Some judicious reverb certainly can assist in the sound when the room sounds unusually small or pinched. But the key word here is judicious.

It still saddens me to hear cool new recordings of classic scores awash in artificial reverb - in other words, not the actual room reverb itself but digital reverb thickly added later during mastering. Overuse of it just kills the vibrancy and stereo imaging in my opinion.

And one place this is certainly evident with Dressed To Kill is during the murder set pieces. Donaggio's chilling strings balanced with trombone glissandi are all but gone in the original album... and I think the intended sound is supposed to be crisp and frightening, not unfocused and muddied. My two cents perhaps. But listen to what we achieved here, listen to the original album, then decide for yourself.
--Doug

P.S. I consider this score to be Donaggio's finest, with Body Double a close second. (Carrie and Blow Out rank number three and four respectively.)

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Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon

DTK has arrived! This one seems like a labor of love, and you know what? It shows. The sound is incredible and the booklet goes above and beyond.

Intrada has had a place in my heart ever since they released my all time top grail - 'Body Double'.

Guess what? I'm falling in love all over again.

Doug, Roger:


Why are the female "aahhs" missing from the "Main Title". They are very evident/distinct on the Blu Ray and as I recall the Varese edition. The "Main Title" just sounds like something is missing and it it is the female "aahhs". Could you please explain??

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Robert M Eastman

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Robert M Eastman