Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Carl Reiner

Writers:

Carl Reiner (written by) &
George Gipe (written by) ...

Release Date:

21 May 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

Laugh... or I'll blow your lips off!

Plot:

Film noir parody with a detective uncovering a sinister plot. Characters from real noirs appear as scenes from various films are intercut.

Plot Keywords:

Parody | Murder | Stock Footage | Henchman | Voice Over

Cast

Steve Martin	...	Rigby Reardon
Rachel Ward	...	Juliet Forrest
Alan Ladd	...	(in "This Gun For Hire") (archive footage)
Carl Reiner	...	Field Marshall VonKluck
Barbara Stanwyck	...	(in "Sorry - Wrong Number") (archive footage)
Ray Milland	...	(in "The Lost Weekend") (archive footage)
Ava Gardner	...	(in "The Killers" / "The Bribe") (archive footage)
Burt Lancaster	...	(in "The Killers") (archive footage)
Humphrey Bogart	...	(in "The Big Sleep" / "In a Lonely Place" / "Dark Passage") (archive footage)
Cary Grant	...	(in "Suspicion") (archive footage)
Ingrid Bergman	...	(in "Notorious") (archive footage)
Veronica Lake	...	(in "The Glass Key") (archive footage)
Bette Davis	...	(in "Deception") (archive footage)
Lana Turner	...	(in "Johnny Eager" / "The Postman Always Rings Twice") (archive footage)
Edward Arnold	...	(in "Johnny Eager") (archive footage)

Also Known As:

Dead Men Wear No Plaid

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Brazil:Livre | USA:PG (#26624) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | West Germany:12 | Spain:7 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Aspen Film Society

Trivia:

This was legendary Costume Designer Edith Head's final film. There is a tribute to her in the closing credits denoting this. Fittingly, the film features many of her earlier designs in cleverly edited clips from old movies.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Panty hose, introduced in Sixties, appear in a scene taking place in mid 1940s.

Quotes:

[In Rigby's office]
Juliet Forrest: If you need me, just call. You know how to dial, don't you? You just put your finger in the hole and make tiny little circles.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Making of 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial' (1996) (V)

Soundtrack:

Dead Men's Bolero

Mostly fun, but loses its way a bit

DMDWP is a black and white film noir comedy that uses footage from real film noirs from the 40s and 50s and inter cuts them with the plot to make it appears that Steve Martin is really talking to/acting with the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, James Cagney etc. The effect is almost seamless but for a movie made in 1982 it's quite impressive.

Martin plays the wonderfully named Rigby Reardon, a typical, gritty private eye who narrates the story with sarcastic observation and gets involved in the usual femme fatal plot and a conspiracy surround the death of a cheese maker. Yes, it's nonsense, and towards the end it becomes a bit hard to follow and the silliness gets out of control. But it's all played straight and for most of the film you could believe you were actually watching a classic film noir.

Steve Martin should have done more of these movies. Rigby Reardon was a great character and could have lasted for a few more movies. The humor is frequently hilarious and he certainly retains a lot of the integrity he has lost in recent years since he went the way of Eddie Murphy and sold himself out to family audiences. Either way, I say you should give this movie a go if you're a fan of his older work.

The DVD is sadly in non-anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby 2.0 surround. It still looks quite good for a black and white film and the sound has that limited sound space effect to it to make it fit in with the older footage. A Dolby 5.1 remix would have been totally unnecessary. Some boring extras (trailer, cast bios) are included.