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:

Rigby Reardon tells Lana Turner he left her sitting at a counter at Schwabs. Turner is rumored to have been discovered sitting at the counter in a Schwabs drugstore.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Juliet sucks the bullet out of Rigby, we are shown her mouth with the bullet between her teeth, the base of the bullet facing us. But the bullet is backwards. Since a bullet would enter an arm nose (rounded end) first, that is the end we should see if it was just removed.

Quotes:

Field Marshal Von Kluck: It is customary in zese situations for ze developer of ze plan to describe it.
Rigby Reardon: I beg your pardon. But it's also customary for the private eye to tell how he figured it out.
Field Marshal Von Kluck: No, it is my right! We were able to dupe Dr. Forrest by posing as a humanitary organization, who planned to wipe out hunger, by ageing cheese faster.
Rigby Reardon: But when your father finally saw what they were doing...
Field Marshal Von Kluck: - he began to assemble lists of names of our agents...
Rigby Reardon: - and seemed about to go to the FBI.
Field Marshal Von Kluck: We were zerfore obliged to kidnap him, drug him ang bring him...
Rigby Reardon: - here! First faking his death so there'd be no further investigation.
Field Marshal Von Kluck: But vile testing ze mold on a small island nearby...
Rigby Reardon: - cruise ship "Immer Essen" passed by. Some of the passengers saw the tiny island dissolve.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofs To Have and Have Not (1944)

Soundtrack:

Dead Men's Bolero

Steve Martin's Affectionate Parody of 1940's Thrillers

Rigby Reardon, private eye, runs the gauntlet of hoods, femmes fatales and crazed Nazis as he investigates the death of beautiful Juliet Forrest's father. Who are the mysterious "Friends of Carlotta"? And why does Rigby keep dressing in women's clothes? And where did Juliet learn to do that trick with her lips? This celebration of the black and white movies of the 1940's and 50's is a very clever and very amusing film. Extracts from celluloid classics are skilfully spliced into the action (check out the architectural detail on the doorframe in the Alan Ladd sequence). The film is a vehicle for Martin's comic talent and he carries it off beautifully. Rachel Ward as Juliet is terrific: she can hold her own with the screen goddesses who so liberally populate the film (Bergman, Davis, Turner and Crawford all make inserted appearances). A project like this could easily have come a cropper, but thanks to the brisk direction of Carl Reiner (who has a great cameo) and Steve Martin's ability to dominate the screen, the movie is a resounding success. It's also very funny.