Body Double DVD Review

When Brian De Palma made Dressed to Kill he received criticism for using a body double for Angie Dickinson’s shower scenes, and he followed up with his next film, conveniently titled Body Double. To me this shows that there really is no such thing as bad publicity if you know how to use it and have a good sense of humor. Apparently he came up with the idea for the film while using a body double on the set of Dressed to Kill. This film is a perfect example of why he is seen as a Hitchcock mimic. Not only did Hitchcock use mistaken identities and normal guys who happen to be in extraordinary situations as De Palma does in this film, but he also seems to carry himself with the same humor.

The special edition of Body Double comes just shortly after the release De Palma’s first theatrical film in quite some time. This may be somewhat of a daring move, and one that may rely far too heavily upon the success of The Black Dahlia. At the same time audiences might find themselves longing films from the years that De Palma was making interesting thrillers.

Body Double takes us into the world of body doubles when a pathetical and lonely actor witnesses a murder. Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) is house-sitting an apartment in a high rise building for a friend who is out of town for an extended amount of time, and one of the perks of the place is a woman in the building across from Jake who dances nude each night with her windows open. He watches her each night through a telescope until he witnesses her murder. As he begins investigating who she is and why she was murdered, he finds himself in an erotic underworld trying to find the answers.

The special edition includes four new featurettes, which are primarily filled with stories about the process from De Palma, Melanie Griffith, Deborah Shelton, Gregg Henry and Dennis Franz. The Seduction has a number of great stories from De Palma about the idea for the film and how it developed, including how he found a real body double to be in the film. He makes mention of footage he took interviewing her before they filmed but it is not included in the featurette. The only thing aside from the interviews in the featurette seems to be footage from the film or some still photography behind the scenes. There isn’t much else to get excited about, although the stories are all pretty fascinating. It just could have been done easier in a commentary track rather than simple featurettes.