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IMDb > Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
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Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) More at IMDbPro »

Videos (see all 2)
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) -- Film noir parody with a detective uncovering a sinister plot. Characters from real noirs appear as scenes from various films are intercut.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) -- text os

IMDb Holiday Movie Guide

Overview

User Rating:
6.6/10   8,602 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 3% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
Carl Reiner (written by) &
George Gipe (written by) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
21 May 1982 (USA) more
Genre:
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. full summary | add synopsis
NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
An Open Letter to Steve Martin
 (From Get The Big Picture. 6 February 2009, 10:36 AM, PST)

Another Awful 'Pink Panther 2' Trailer
 (From Get The Big Picture. 25 December 2008, 9:52 PM, PST)

User Comments:
Film noir was never this funny! more (84 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

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)
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Dead Men Wear No Plaid
more
Runtime:
88 min
Country:
Language:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The car accident at the beginning of the movie (the killing of the scientist) is taken from Keeper of the Flame (1942). That movie, however, is not listed in the credits as the source of the footage. more
Goofs:
Anachronisms: Panty hose, introduced in Sixties, appear in a scene taking place in mid 1940s. more
Quotes:
Rigby Reardon: [drugged] What do you know about a plane with Germermans on it? Germerm... Germans. Germermans. There's a plane with mermans on it. The plane's in town. Ethel Merman came in on it. Wanna go see Ethel Merman with me? I'll buy two tickets. Let me get on my pajamas, I'll be ready to go.
[voice-over]
Rigby Reardon: I'd done some brilliant things in my time. Asking Kitty Collins to mix me a drink wasn't one of them.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Watching the Detectives (2007) more
Soundtrack:
Dead Men's Bolero more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
18 out of 20 people found the following comment useful.
Film noir was never this funny!, 22 October 2005
8/10
Author: jotix100 from New York

Carl Reiner, the multi-talented director of this film, is the only one that could have pulled it off. Working with George Gipe, and Steve Martin in the screen play that serves as the basis of the movie, Mr. Reiner has done the impossible with "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid".

Of course, this film is blessed with the magnificent editing by Bud Malin, who meshed the present images against those film noir masterpieces we see, blending the characters of this movie with the stars of the past, in what seems to be a seamless product. It also helps that Miklos Rozsa was the man composing the music, as everything shows a cohesiveness that is hard to distinguished in what was shot in 1982 and the old movies.

This spoof to the film noir genre is a pure delight. The main character, Rigby Reardon is the P.I. from hell, but thanks to the creators of this movie, he is perfect as the man at the center of the action.

Not being a Steve Martin fan, one has to recognize that when this actor is inspired, he can do excellent work. It would appear that with a director like Carl Reiner, he would have gone off the top, but instead, Mr. Martin gives a good reading of Rigby. Rachel Ward, as the typical woman of those films, is charming. Reni Santoni, Georege Gaynes and the rest of the supporting cast do wonders under Carl Reiner's orders.

The film brought back memories of those timeless masterpieces of the past and the stars that shone in them. We get to see Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Ingrid Bergman, Vincent Price, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Barbara Stanwyck, Fred McMurray, Edward G. Robinson, and the others at the height of their fame playing against the present cast and making the viewer happy watching all the antics which Mr. Reiner and his team have created for our amusement.

This is a funny look at the old movies!

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I finally seen it and it was a big suprise... hannahp1
The first bit and the end bit sianybo
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