Tonight's Movie: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

Steve Martin and Carl Reiner's detective film spoof DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID (1982) has been released in a Special Edition Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

Reiner and Martin wrote the screenplay with George Gipe; Reiner directed and Martin stars as Detective Rigby Reardon.

For those who aren't familiar with the film, Reardon solves a crime while interacting with a plethora of Golden Era stars whose lines are cleverly cut into the movie.

Along the way he romances his stunning client, Juliet Forrest (Rachel Ward, a year ahead of THE THORN BIRDS).

I hadn't seen the film since it was first released, and I'm absolutely certain I got a lot more out of the movie this time around, as by my count I've now seen all but one of the films which provided the source material for the movie clips. Although I'm a longtime film fan, I came relatively late to film noir, and I suspect the only "clipped" films I'd seen when the movie was originally released were the Bogart and Hitchcock films.

The most extensive classic footage in the film comes from THE BRIBE (1949), which I didn't see for the first time until almost exactly a dozen years ago. I had no memory of scenes like the big fireworks finale being in the movie and got quite a kick out of it.

The movie is most successful when it has Reardon interact with Humphrey Bogart's Philip Marlowe, who helps him solve the case. The scenes are well edited and amusing.

Additional actors seen in the film clips include Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Lana Turner, Fred MacMurray, Ava Gardner, Bette Davis, Ray Milland, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and even more! I appreciated the end credits, which shows clips of each actor and lists the films they were seen in.

The one movie used in the film which I haven't yet seen? Barbara Stanwyck in SORRY, WRONG NUMBER (1948).

The DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID costumes -- including a stunning wardrobe for Rachel Ward -- were designed by Edith Head, who had designed some of the costumes seen in the original clips from Paramount films. This was Head's last film, and the movie is dedicated to her and the other craftsmen who made the original films.

It was also quite appropriate that the movie was scored by Miklos Rozsa (DOUBLE INDEMNITY). The new scenes were shot in black and white by Michael Chapman.

The movie runs a fairly well-paced 88 minutes. It's frankly only mildly entertaining, thanks to the clips and the beautiful Ward; my fellow classic film fans will probably find it's worth a look-see, but at the same time it's a bit of a "one-joke" film. A little goes a long way, and the movie probably could have stood to be a bit shorter. The film has several tasteless crass moments which simply aren't my kind of humor, and excising those scenes would have saved a couple minutes.

The Blu-ray print is good, though not of the very highest caliber; there are inherent issues with the film matching up the "looks" of the new footage and the clips. The clips often look unrestored and grainy, but I believe that's more of an issue with how they looked in the original film than anything to do with the quality of the Blu-ray itself. It's more a matter that there's only so much that can be done to make the "new" sections of the film look sharp while also matching up with the look of the clips.

The Special Edition extras include a new commentary by Allan Arkush and Daniel Kremer; multiple trailers, radio and TV spots; and reversible case cover art. The earliest sets to ship had cardboard slipcases but those are no longer available, according to the current listing at the Kino Lorber website.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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