Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (USA; Carl Reiner, 1982)

   I had seen numerous clips of this film noir spoof but had never screened it in its entirety until now. Seeing as I've been a long-time fan of both the noir genre and Steve Martin, needless to say I found this intelligently stupid parody greatly enjoyable. The perfect vehicle for Martin's deadpan, casual flakiness, Dead Men is astutely sophisticated in its satirical manipulation of film noir conventions, mocking while simultaneously giving tribute to this post-WWII cinematic movement. The film follows private eye (of course) Rigby Reardon (Martin) as he attempts to uncover some sinister plot that grows more and more absurd as the frames move along. Hired by a mysterious woman (Rachel Ward) who can extract bullets with her teeth, Reardon encounters iconic film noir personalities throughout his investigation, their parts in the plot shown through footage taken from actual noir films of that era. Humphrey Bogart's Philip Marlowe (whose quotes are plastered all over Reardon's office walls like scripture) heads the line-up of stars from the golden age that pop-up incessantly during the picture, including Ava Gardner, Ray Milland, Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Veronica Lake, Lana Turner and many others, the recognition of the films chosen to be inserted into the narrative adding greatly to the picture's appeal, the juxtaposition of old and new being cleverly constructed. Further adding to this is the change in context concerning the dialogue taken from the older scenes, in itself a testament to the formative powers of editing. Making fun of film noir's self-inflicted tendency of being over-complicated (as indicated by its repetitive inclusion of Bogart as Marlowe from The Big Sleep, a film known for its intentional confusion), Dead Men is absurd in the best sense of the word, letting the viewer slip into cinematic nostalgia while simultaneously cracking up to Martin's unique blend of comedy in what is arguably one of his best early titles.