Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
Genre: Crime / Comedy
Duration: 89 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Carl Reiner
Stars: Steve Martin, Rachel Ward and Carl Reiner
IMDb score:
6,8 (25.895)
Releasedate: 21 May 1982
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid plot
"Laugh...or I’ll blow your lips off!"
Things are quiet in his detective agency when the daughter of a cheese-making scientist asks him to investigate the real facts of her father's death. His father always said 'Dead men don't wear plaid', he never knew what his father meant by that.
Actors and actresses
Rigby Reardon
Juliet Forrest
(in "This Gun For Hire") (archive footage)
Juliet's Butler / Field Marshal Wilfried von Kluck
(in "Sorry - Wrong Number") (archive footage)
(in "The Lost Weekend") (archive footage)
(in "The Killers" / "The Bribe") (archive footage)
(in "The Killers") (archive footage)
(in "The Big Sleep" / "In a Lonely Place" / "Dark Passage") (archive footage)
(in "Suspicion") (archive footage)
Reviews & comments
scorsese
-
- 13476 messages
- 11296 votes
A good film in which a detective takes on a new job from a beautiful woman. A parody of old film noirs in which many scenes from old black-and-white films are edited together in a clever and original way. The story fails to really captivate, mainly because it is too fragmented. The humor is sometimes lame, but successful, and the film contains a number of funny one-liners.
Translated from Dutch · View original
jono
-
- 345 messages
- 4133 votes
Film noir is one of my favorite film genres. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is a comedic film noir, but it fulfills all the hallmarks of a classic film noir: a cynical detective, a voice-over, flashbacks, a rainy city, lots of cigarette smoke, and, of course, a femme fatale. And naturally, everything is shot in beautiful black and white.
The story is absolutely impossible to follow: something involving a missing professor, a hit list, and a German conspiracy, but that doesn't matter at all. It is a joy to watch. The use of archival footage from old films is very inventive, allowing us to spot many Hollywood stars of yesteryear. A delight for a film freak like me. For instance, I spotted Humphrey Bogart, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Barbara Stanwyck, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Ingrid Bergman, James Cagney, Cary Grant, and a handful of other stars that have since slipped my mind. 4*
Translated from Dutch · View original
Lovelyboy
-
- 4087 messages
- 3062 votes
Friday evening, I got to work on a Dead Men Don't Wear plaid that I had scored at the thrift store a few weeks ago, thinking it was a well-known title, but otherwise I didn't know the film. Another moment of hesitation was the presence of Steve Martin, whom I have actually never caught doing anything funny or entertaining, but after reading up on it, the expectation was that the film wasn't really about humor.
And while the film initially gets off to a fine start with the neo-noir imagery surrounding Rigby, leaving the lame humor aside here and there, it doesn't quite sink in at first what they are doing with this film, where I am amazed by the youthful appearance of Ava Gardner, among others. How can she still look so good at sixty? Silly me... yet soon after, the editing and homage to a number of classics becomes clear, creating a distinct mix where Steve Martin 'shares' the screen with quite a few luminaries. And the concept is nice, with Rigby edited into quite a few scenes, giving the original a completely different context. Add to that a huge array of beautiful women in the form of Ward, Gardner, Lake, and Turner, and the rest of the cast is fine as well.
However, it is not just the sunshine that causes the combination with the humor to fail for me. Too many jokes don't work; they are too lame or are dragged out for too long, like the whole business with the coffee he makes for Swede, or how he always gets hit by bullets in the same spot. Still, every now and then a joke is quite good, but that is rare. Then there is the ultra-thin storyline regarding the case Rigby is sent on. It’s not exactly top-notch in that regard. Nevertheless, the film will receive a passing grade, as a fine neo-noir atmosphere has been created and the concept is quite well thought out. Therefore, a 3 for the effort.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Corporate & Media
Realtimes Network
Innovatieweg 20C
7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31(315)-764002
