Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid  

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Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is a 1982 American neo-noir comedy-mystery film directed by Carl Reiner. Starring Steve Martin and Rachel Ward, the film is both a parody of and a homage to film noir and the pulp detective films of the 1940s.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is partly a collage film, incorporating clips from 19 vintage films. They are combined with new footage of Martin and other actors similarly shot in black-and-white, with the result that the original dialogue and acting of the classic films become part of a completely different story.

Contents

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Plot

Juliet Forrest, the daughter of noted scientist and cheesemaker John Hay Forrest, asks private investigator Rigby Reardon to investigate her father's death, which she believes to be murder. Searching Dr. Forrest's lab Rigby finds two lists, one titled "Friends of Carlotta" (FOC) and the other "Enemies of Carlotta" (EOC), as well as an affectionately autographed photo of singer Kitty Collins, whose name appears on one of the lists. His search is interrupted by a man posing as an exterminator, who shoots Rigby in the arm and takes the lists from the seemingly dead investigator.

Rigby manages to find his way to Juliet's house, where she sucks out the bullet, snakebite-style, and points Rigby to the club at which Kitty sings. Juliet also reveals a note to her father from her alcoholic brother-in-law, Sam Hastings, which in turn reveals that Dr. Forrest gave him a dollar bill "for safekeeping". Despite warnings that the mentally disturbed Leona will not be of much use, Rigby calls Leona, who after a rambling discussion, hangs up. On the way out, Juliet asks Rigby to leave further news with her butler or cleaning woman. Mention of the latter causes Rigby to go berserk due to his own father running off with the cleaning woman and his mother dying of a broken heart.

Rigby tracks down alcoholic Sam and gets Dr. Forrest's dollar, which has "FOC" names scrawled on it — including Kitty Collins and her boyfriend Swede Anderson. Rigby tracks down Kitty Collins at a nightclub, asking her if she's one of Carlotta's friends, which causes her to leave abruptly. He trails her to a restaurant, where she ditches her brooch into her soup. Rigby subsequently retrieves the brooch, which contains an "EOC" list, on which all names are crossed out, except Swede Anderson's. Rigby visits Swede but while Rigby prepares his famous "java", Swede is killed. Rigby is also shot, in the same arm as last time, causing Juliet to suck out another bullet. Rigby calls his mentor Philip Marlowe for assistance. Juliet hands over a key from Dr. Forrest's desk, a key to a train station locker 1936, and asks him to call with any progress. Marlowe meanwhile, picks up the EOC list to check against any unsolved murders.

Rigby goes to the train station to collect the contents of locker 1936, which contains more lists. He finds F.X. Huberman, whose name he found on one of the lists and who turns out to be a "classy dame with bedroom eyes," throwing a party. She flirts with Rigby, then drugs his drink and steals the locker key. Rigby regains consciousness after crawling back to his office, where Juliet finds him. She informs Rigby that Sam Hastings has died falling out of a window reaching for a bottle of whiskey. She also has a reference for him from her father's office. The reference is to an article in The New York Times about a South American cruise ship called Immer Essen (German for always eating) on whose last voyage Sam Hastings was a passenger. When Marlowe calls, Rigby questions him about Walter Neff, the ship's owner, and learns that Neff cruises supermarkets looking for blondes.

Juliet offers to dye her hair to serve as bait, but Rigby is protective of her as more than a client. He tries to recruit several of his former associates without success, and instead disguises himself as a blonde and meets Neff. Rigby drugs him and finds documents about the Immer Essen, including a passenger manifest identical to an EOC list, and articles about the ship's imprisoned captain, Cody Jarrett, who refuses to talk to anyone about it but his mother. Rigby then dresses up as Jarrett's mother to visit Jarrett in prison without arousing the prison guards' suspicion. He tries to win Jarrett's confidence by explaining the Friends of Carlotta are after him. Rigby doesn't learn anything from Jarrett though, so he cashes in a favor with the warden to act as a prisoner for a few days. Jarrett turns out to be a Friend of Carlotta after all, kidnaps Rigby during a breakout, and shoots him while he's still in the trunk of the getaway car.

After sucking out a third bullet, Juliet leaves for the drugstore for medicine. On her way out, a call comes in from an old flame. Juliet overhears parts of it on an extension in the next room, and thinking Rigby is two-timing her, calls Rigby from a pay phone and closes the case. While Rigby is drinking, thinking himself betrayed by Juliet, Marlowe calls and tips Rigby off that Carlotta is an island off Peru. At a cafe, Rigby finds Kitty Collins there. Carlos Rodriguez, a local policeman from Rigby's gun-running past, warns Rigby of the locals, including Kitty's new boyfriend, Rice. The next day, one of the characters Rodriguez warned Rigby of approaches him and tries to bribe Rigby into leaving the island.

Kitty drops by Reardon's room. Carlos calls to tell him Rice is in town with a group of Germans when the telephone line is cut. Kitty then drugs Rigby's drink, causing him to pass out. He wakes up to see Rice trying to suffocate him. After exchanging shots and chasing through the "Fiesta de Carlotta" fireworks celebration, Rigby shoots Rice and frisks the corpse for instructions leading him to a hideout where he finds Juliet, her father (actually still alive), and her butler, who introduces himself as Field Marshal Wilfried von Kluck.

Rigby and the Field Marshal compete about the right to explain what happened by interrupting each other's monologue. It turns out that Dr. Forrest had been tricked into divulging a secret cheese mold by Nazis posing as a humanitarian organization. Once he discovered their true intent, to use the mold's corrosive properties to destroy America with strategically placed cheese bombs and make a comeback, he assembled a list of Nazi agents, the "Friends of Carlotta." Before he could divulge the names to the FBI, he was abducted and his death faked to prevent a police investigation. The Immer Essen, a cruise ship passing by, witnessed the corrosive effects of the mold tests, making all passengers "Enemies of Carlotta" and targets for murder. Rigby is captured but Juliet gets the Field Marshal to say "cleaning woman," causing Rigby to go berserk, break his chains and overpower the Nazis. While Juliet gets Rodriguez, the Field Marshal manages to pull one of the switches, destroying Terre Haute, Indiana, before being shot dead by Rigby. Rodriguez rounds up the other Nazis while Rigby shares a long kiss with Juliet.

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Cast

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Archive footage (in order of appearance)

All actors featured in archive footage were still alive at the time of the movie's release except Ladd, Bogart, Lake, Arnold, Crawford, and Laughton. Bergman died just a few months after the film's debut.

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Films used

The following films were used in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. Five films were already owned by Universal, and the rest were licensed from other studios. Of the five films owned by Universal, four were originally owned by Paramount. Note that some of the film license owners have changed since the original release of the films.

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Universal

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Warner Bros.*

*At the time of release, United Artists owned these films.

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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer**

**These films are now owned by Warner Bros. as a result of their 1996 acquisition of Turner Entertainment Co., who owned the rights since 1986.

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RKO Pictures***

*** Suspicion is now owned by Warner Bros. as a result of their 1996 acquisition of Turner Entertainment Co., who owned the rights since 1986. Notorious is now owned by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures as a result of their 1996 acquisition of American Broadcasting Company, who owned the rights to most of the films produced by David O. Selznick.

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Paramount Pictures

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Columbia Pictures

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Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 76% based on reviews from 25 critics with the consensus: "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is more elaborate pastiche than uproarious comedy, but the farce works thanks to the sly lampooning of Hollywood noir and Steve Martin's performance as a goofy gumshoe."

In his review for Newsweek magazine, David Ansen wrote, "A one joke movie? Perhaps, but it's such an engaging joke that anyone who loves old movies will find it irresistible. And anyone who loves Steve Martin will be fascinated by his sly performance, which is pitched exactly between the low comedy of The Jerk and the highbrow Brechtianisms of Pennies from Heaven."

Vincent Canby's review for The New York Times praised Martin's performance: "the film has an actor who's one of America's best sketch artists, a man blessed with a great sense of timing, who is also self-effacing enough to meet the most cockeyed demands of the material." Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote, "The gag works for a while, as Martin weaves his own plot-web into the 18 old movies, but pretty soon he's traveling on old good will and flop sweat".


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See also



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