Saturday 3 March 2012

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)

http://veehd.com/video/4508541_Dead-Men-Dont-Wear-Plaid-1982
Whatever you do, don't mention the CLEANING WOMAN! Starring that wild and crazy guy Steve Martin, this film noir comedy is interspersed with clips from famous Hollywood thrillers of the 40s. Rigby Reardon (Martin) is a private eye on a case. With the help of various big stars such as Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Vincent Price and Joan Crawford (and many others!) he attempts to solve the murder of scientist and part time cheese maker John Hay Forrest (George Gaines) and falls in love with Juliet (Rachel Ward) , daughter of the dead man. Rigby gets shot in the arm several times (always in the same hole!) but luckily the gorgeous Juliet is always on hand to suck out the bullet.
The idea for this movie came from a discussion between Martin,screenwriter George Gipe and director Carl Reiner (who also appears as the butler and the nasty Nazi). Martin originally had a screenplay which called for the use of an old film clip, and the project snowballed from there. The finished product uses scenes from 19 old thriller and pulp films, and you may enjoy naming the movies and stars as they appear. This technique of combining old and new footage was even copied by Heineken Lager for a series of adverts starring comedian Griff Rhys Jones...along with John Wayne and the cast of ICE COLD IN ALEX (1958)! Other movies have since copied the idea, notably Woody Allen's ZELIG (1983) and of course FORREST GUMP (1994) which was directed by Robert Zemeckis.
PS to watch this and all other films on VEEHD, open an account on the site...that way you don't need to download the horrible, virus-ridden codec to watch the movies!
More monochrome mayhem from Sneaky Elephant SOON!

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