Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), Director: Carl Reiner, rated PG-13 for crude humor Screenplay: Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, Bob Clark Starring: Steve Martin (Rigby Reardon), Rachel Ward (Juliet Forrest), George Gaynes (Dr. John Hay Forrest), Reni Santoni (Carlos Rodriguez), Carl Reiner (Field Marshall Wilifried Von Kluck) and special appearances by Alan Ladd, Barbara Stanwyck, Lana Turner, Burt Lancaster, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart to name a few noir stars. Plot Summary: Hardboiled private eye Rigby Reardon is hired by a beautiful woman to investigate the suspicious death of her scientist father, who was killed over a secret cheese recipe. While navigating 1940s Los Angeles, Reardon uncovers a sinister plot involving lists of friends and enemies, encountering various suspicious characters along the way.
As our tight-lipped detective, Rigby Reardon, is hired by Juliet Forrest to find out who murdered her father, John. He heads out to investigate and he finds a critical clue, but is shot in the arm. He manages to find his way to Juliet's home, where the beautiful young lady, quite naturally, sucks the bullet out. As he continues on the case he is again shot in the same arm, directly into the same bullet hole. Once again, Juliet's skillful lips retrieve the slug, much to Rigby's relief. I love it when absurdity works in a film, even if the word suck is involved. Something subtle you might have missed: if you are under 40, you probably missed this... Spliced within this film are vintage performances from Hollywood's most famous film noir stars, from the following films: The Big Sleep (1946), The Bribe (1949), Dark Passage (1947), Deception (1946), Double Indemnity (1944), The Glass Key (1942), Humoresque (1946), I Walk Alone (1947), In a Lonely Place (1950), Johnny Eager (1941), Keeper of the Flame (1943), The Killers (1946), The Lost Weekend (1945), Notorious (1946), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), Suspicion (1941), This Gun for Hire (1942), White Heat (1949). Memorable Quotes: "I hadn't seen a body put together like that since I'd solved the case of the Murdered Girl with the Big Tits." - Rigby Reardon "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." - Juliet Forrest "You'd like to what? Kiss me? Yeah, that would be nice. It would give me a chance to tell her I was starting to feel something for her, too. Something warm and squishy." - Rigby Reardon (voice-over) "Her lips were warm, and my arm wasn't the only thing that was throbbing. Our hearts were, too. My plan was to kiss her with every lip on my face..." - Rigby Reardon Dad's Review: There was just something about Steve Martin. He burst onto the screen as a guess host on Saturday Night Live. He was a part of so many memorable skits: The Wild and Crazy Festrunk Brothers, Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber, and the famous, Top 40 hit, King Tut. During his stand-up routines, he would bounce around the stage wearing a face nose, playing a banjo and juggling live cats. There was a comedic energy we would not see again until Jim Carey. Hot on the heels of two successful comedy efforts in The Jerk (1979) and Pennies from Heaven (1981), Martin again teamed up with director Carl Reiner to take comedy into a completely different direction. The whole idea was hatched at a business meeting between Martin, Reiner and screenwriter George Gipe where they thought it would be cool to insert a single old movie clip into a movie. This quickly expanded to using several clips, all part of creating a new plot for a film. Reiner thought they merge old footage with new, via over-the-shoulder shots so that modern actors could interact with film noir's legendary actors. Reiner and Gipe spent countless hours pouring over old noir films, selecting scenes that involved ambiguous lines. They then crafted a storyline, that, for the most part, made some sort of sense.
After all shooting, the film required editing. For this, by Bud Molin was brought in - the clips from old to new were merged seamlessly - a feat that had to work, for the film to succeed. The end result is this under-appreciated comedy classic. It is both a parody of film noir, and an homage to those great 1940's seedy, dark crime classics. It truly is one-of-a-kind. Part of the comedic genius is the deadpan seriousness conveyed by the modern actors, in order to fit into the framework of a 1940's detective story. The dialogue was then infused with bits that are completely absurd, a Steve Martin trademark. Interspersed are comments like, "Can I use her underwear to make soup?" or "You put on a black dress, and I'll go shave my tongue." There's way too much made out of Rigby's pajamas, and after this film you will know the meaning of Rienemachefrau. Another wise move regarding this film was casting Rachel Ward as the sultry woman who needs to solve the murder of her father. She is quite possibly the most beautiful woman from the 1980's. The former model impressed us in a TV drama series called The Thornbirds. This was her third film, and in 1984 she would sizzle onscreen with Jeff Bridges in Against All Odds. As a whole, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid blazed new ground in film creativity, and tapped into the rise of Steve Martin's ascending career. It's laugh-out-loud funny and simply nuts at times. For me, the movie helped me find the film noir genre, one I had avoided. It also gave me more Steve Martin, because, he IS such a wild and crazy guy. La Fine On to No. 94... Hawser
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Defining Moment:
first aid
Once
the project was approved, they had some hurdles: The creation of classic costumes, and
modern film segments that looked like classics. Costume designer Edith Head, a
legend in her own right, was brought in to deck out Steve Martin and the
rest of the cast (she died before the film was completed). Production
designer John DeCuir, with over 40-years experience, created 85 sets for
filming, and Michael Chapman, the director of photography, spent six
months researching Technicolor attributes in order to match the old clips with new
footage.