Business is slow at Rigby Reardon (Steve Martin)'s private eye agency. Juliet Forrest (Rachel Ward) wants him to investigate the accidental death of her cheese scientist father. She suspects a giant conspiracy. He gets shot and his clue is stolen. Juliet sucks out the bullet. Rigby goes berserk at the mention of cleaning woman.The addition of old film strips is lots of fun. The conflicting sense from the old clips and Steve Martin is a goldmine. It's mostly an one joke movie but Steve Martin keeps it fresh. It also helps to have a love for these old movies. The story does a feeling of randomness. The disconnected old clips serve mostly to have some fun with. In between, Martin deadpans some great gags.

Film noir parody with a detective (Steve Martin) uncovering a sinister plot. Characters from real noirs appear as scenes from various films are intercut.This film seems to be best enjoyed by those who love film noir. I do not necessarily think that is a prerequisite, but if you are familiar with the older actors and the films that are mixed in here, you will probably get a little more out of it. (And, heck, if you have not seen these, I strongly recommend you rectify that.) I have a love-hate relationship with Steve Martin. Some of his stuff I think is genius and others I am left unfulfilled. Many people think "The Jerk" is among the greatest comedies of all time. I liked it, but have no desire to push it on others. This one I liked much more.

I confess not to be a big fan of Steve Martin, an actor whose comedies I find to be too often on the exaggeration side of the joke, playing all the time almost in the same register. Yet, Carl Reiner's Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is in many instances a charm, and it also succeeds to be funny and respectful in its reverence to the film noir movies of the 40s and 50s.Even the much younger Steve Martin, with black hair and sparkling eyes looks here completely fresh as private eye Rigby Reardon, hired to solve a Californian mystery which combines all the 1940s detective novels that you may have read and the films inspired by them all together. The trick used by director Reiner is to take full scenes from original film noir movies, mix, edit and insert them into his own story line. Martin gets the privilege to talk and interact with the greater idols of the genre, from Humphrey Bogart to Cary Grant, while the feminine interest is being triggered by such divine silhouettes as Ingrid Bergman or Ava Gardner. Borrowed scenes come from famous movies like Notorious, Suspicion, or The Big Sleep, but you need not worry, there is no real scary stuff, it is all fun.I do not know if Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid received any award, but the cinematography, editing and make-up are all amazing. The look with the original scenes filmed in black-and-white strongly reminds The Artist, but only a fraction of the scenes are original, the majority are cut from various sources, and combined, so that the heroes of the film talk and interact with the original film characters. It's a smart idea and it is almost flawlessly executed, so that the film runs smoothly. I said the film, not the story, which is a parody, and there is no mandatory minimal dose of logic in a parody. Best for future viewers is to take this film for what it is – a big joke, but an elaborated one, combined with an homage for a literary and cinematographic genre that thrilled many generations.

I've never been a huge fan of Steve Martin's, so I often find myself watching his movies for his leading ladies; and while Peters, Danes and Turner are undoubtedly eye-candy, none of them quite match up to Rachel Ward at her finest – and here she is possibly even lovelier than she was in 'The Thornbirds'. She's also a surprisingly good foil for Martin; able to deliver some wonderfully outrageous lines absolutely deadpan, and without breaking character.Inter-cutting new film with old wasn't new even when this piece came out, and I suspect the idea may have come from Martin's 'Pennies from Heaven' of the previous year (itself a copy of a BBC series from 1978); but the premise of using film noir was a stroke of genius and it's very slickly done. Unfortunately, a plot which starts out very well degenerates somewhat towards the end, perhaps hamstrung by the one-note comic style; but for the first hour it's an absolute joy to watch, and very funny indeed.However, it has to be admitted that I watch it for Rachel - my dream woman of the early eighties and, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful ever to grace the silver screen. Bryan Brown, you're a lucky fella.