Stripped to Kill

Stripped to Kill
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Katt Shea
Produced by	Mark Byers executive Roger Corman
Written by	Andy Ruben Katt Shea
Starring	Greg Evigan Kay Lenz Norman Fell Pia Kamakahi Tracy Crowder
Music by	John O'Kennedy
Cinematography	John LeBlanc
Edited by	Zach Staenberg Bruce Stubblefield
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	March 20, 1987 (1987-03-20)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Stripped to Kill is a 1987 erotic thriller/sexploitation film, it was directed by Katt Shea, and stars Greg Evigan, Kay Lenz & Norman Fell.

The movie is about a female detective who is forced to go undercover as a stripper in order to investigate a murder.

The film was inspired by a visit Katt Shea and her husband and writing partner Andy Ruben made to a strip club.

"I didn't want to go because I felt it was humiliating to women," recalls Shea. "But I finally got myself there. I sat down and began watching these acts and they're performing as if they really cared."

Shea later elborated:

Before I did STRIPPED TO KILL you had never seen a girl dancing on a pole, no one had ever seen that in a movie, to my knowledge. Girls swinging around on a pole--that had not been done yet. So I think that was spectacular; it was crazy, it was wild. This is how it happened. I went to a strip club for the first time in my life and I saw a girl swinging around on a pole and I thought, ‘Oh my god this has got to be in a movie!’ I mean, nobody knows this goes on except a bunch of guys with dollar bills, so it just had to be exploited, I guess. I thought they were very artistic and I just loved the girls, they were real artists and they were just using this particular venue to explore their art.

She took the idea to Roger Corman for whom she had made a number of movies as an actor. Corman says he liked the basic idea but questioned the believability of a scene where a man went undercover as a stripper. Shea brought in a female impersonator to see Corman and had him describe to the producer who to pretend to be a stripper. "He [Corman] turned every shade," recalls Shea. "He was purple by the end. But then he said yes."

Kay Lenz complained publicly about the film's editing and "exploitative" ad campaign aimed at the print media.

The film was a hit and led to a sequel, shot on the same set as Dance of the Damned. The sequel was also directed by Shea who took her name off because of Corman's editing interference.