Dressed to Kill

Though De Palma receives top billing, this book was written by the English novelist Campbell Black, adapted for De Palma's film (which is basically a re-telling of 'Psycho' in modern Manhattan, with the sex and violence quotient quadrupled). The novel tells the same story as the film, but differs entirely in style: whereas the film is a very black comedy (as was 'Psycho'), the tone of the novel is rather bleak and morose, more a reflection of Campbell Black's English sensibility than De Palma's playful manipulative (and distinctly American) style. The film is pure visual cinema, while the novel is a more internalized psychological thriller that delves into the neurosis and motivations of each of the characters (including Bobbi - the razor-weilding blonde transvestite whose grisly murder of a sad, adulterous housewife is the centerpiece of the both the film and the book.)