Rating of
2.5/4
"Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/05/12
Luckily, this affectionate parody of Film Noir from Steve Martin was made deep, deep back in the mists of the dawn of time, when giant reptiles ruled the Earth and he was still funny. Cleverly splicing in sequences from several movie classics, it tells the story of Rigby Reardon, private eye on the trail of a Nazi conspiracy to destroy the United States with a particularly potent cheese. Reminiscent of a detective story version of Young Frankenstein, the style of classic Noir is faithfully recreated to the point of employing the talents of legendary designer Edith Head (this in fact was her final film). Rachel Ward is every inch the glamorous femme fatale and Martin plays it admirably straight, and the more surreal uses of the intercut scenes can be really funny. It doesn't quite have the legs to last the full 90 minutes, but it's always amusing and it's fun to spot the films Martin and Reiner "borrowed" from.
