Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 24, 2018

Carl Reiner and Steve Martin made four films together beginning with 1979’s The Jerk, which was in fact Martin’s major feature starring debut. The Jerk was a celebration of “stupid comedy”, but kind of interestingly the subsequent three film collaborations between Reiner and Martin were all kind of “high concept” offerings in their own demented ways. Both 1983’s The Man with Two Brains and 1984’s All of Me bore a certain resemblance to each other, with each film exploiting brains (and/or consciousnesses) being imported into bodies to which they don’t belong, with the first film sending up everything from Frankenstein to The Brain That Wouldn't Die, and the latter film skewering a bunch of New Age hoohah (a technical term) while also providing Martin with one of the most superbly silly opportunities for physical comedy after the character he plays “incorporates” the consciousness of the character played by Lily Tomlin. But in the “high concept” arena, probably none of the four films made by Reiner and Martin come close to Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, a parody of film noir that actually incorporates a slew of clips from old noir (and/or mystery) films, including everything from Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion and Notorious to true noir classics like Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice and The Big Sleep. Perhaps surprisingly, then, the comedic dividends in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid are a little variable, with Reiner often tending to rely on shtick instead of more verbally acute humor.

A calamitous car crash takes the life of famous scientist John Hay Forrest, who also rather strangely had a fascination with cheese, something that later plays into the insanely convoluted plot. Private dick Rigby Reardon (Steve Martin) is killing time in his office when Forrest’s gorgeous daughter Juliet (Rachel Ward) shows up asking Reardon to investigate what she suspects was her father’s murder. She has one tiny clue, the corner of a dollar bill with a puzzling allusion to one Carlotta. Later, in Forrest’s office, Reardon uncovers two more puzzling allusions to Carlotta, lists emblazoned with “Friends of Carlotta” and “Enemies of Carlotta”. Unfortunately, Reardon is interrupted by an “exterminator” (Alan Ladd in scenes from This Gun for Hire), who indeed attempts to exterminate Reardon, leading to the first use of a recurring gag where Juliet’s sucking skills are able to remove a bullet lodged in Reardon’s arm.

The attempt to stuff old film clips into the storyline offers both wonderfully outré moments (my personal favorite being Reardon’s bizarre phone call to Juliet’s sister, Barbara Stanwyck’s hysterical hypochondriac from Sorry, Wrong Number) and occasional pitfalls (a kind of silly sidebar involving Humphrey Bogart from In a Lonely Place). But there are some supremely goofy moments in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid that will almost certainly delight both Martin and Reiner fans, including a delirious sequence where Reardon becomes a femme fatale courtesy of a disguise and interact with Fred MacMurray from Double Indemnity.

Suffice it to say that elements of a Nazi conspiracy are ultimately uncovered, leading to a series of hyperbolic interchanges between various characters, both those within Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid itself (including Carl Reiner as Juliet's supposed butler), as well as between those characters and the "extracurricular" characters from other films. The plotting is almost unavoidably labyrinthine after a while, as it attempts to stuff in as many unrelated clips as possible.

All of this said, the comedic dividends that Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid pays are perhaps less fulsome than some might have hoped, especially considering the inventive concept and the combined talents of Reiner and Martin. Reiner and Martin co-wrote the screenplay, along with George Gipe, but the humor is only occasionally laugh out loud worthy, and it must be stated that some gags, both verbal and physical, fall pretty flat. Martin seems to be trying a bit too hard as the film goes on, giving the last third or so of the film a kind of strained aspect. Still, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid is innovative enough to sustain interest, even if laughs tend to dissipate as the conceit goes on.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. There's an unavoidable heterogeneity to this presentation courtesy of the many clips that are used interstitially, clips that have obviously been sourced from elements in pretty drastically different states of quality (or lack thereof). Adding to age related wear and tear which affects everything from damage like scratches and nicks to contrast is the fact that all of these vintage clips, which were originally in Academy ratio, have been blown up for the 1.85:1 frame, something that adds measurably to issues with grain resolution at varying moments. That said, the "contemporary" elements in this transfer are typically excellent looking, with a nicely resolved fine grain field, and really nice looking contrast that offers solid, deep blacks and pleasingly modulated gray scale. Detail levels and fine detail levels in these "newly filmed" portions of the tale are generally consistent throughout the presentation.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that experiences some of the same variances as the video presentation, though probably not to the same degree. There are clear variances in fidelity as the film segues from "newly filmed" elements to the vintage clips, and occasionally the changes are a little jarring. But again as with the video aspect, all of the contemporary sequences feature excellent fidelity that easily supports dialogue, effects and score.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is another Universal catalog release that doesn't just have no supplements, but which even forsakes a Main Menu. The disc simply boots to the Universal masthead before moving directly on to the film.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid can't quite sustain its conceit for its entire running time, but its conceit is so generally winning that fans of Martin and Reiner will probably be willing to overlook the less than hilarious bits. Martin is a bit on the (now) politically incorrect lecherous side throughout this film, but when you have someone like Rachel Ward in the frame with you, it's hard to argue with his reaction. While there are unavoidable quality variances in both the video and audio presentation here due to the many clips from different sources being utilized, this is on the whole a solid technical presentation of a wacky film. Recommended.