Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid is a send-up of the 1930s/40s film noir starring Steve Martin (who co-scripted with director Carl Reiner) and Rachel Ward. The Blu-ray was released by Kino Lorber on September 21st.
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid
(1982)
Genre(s): Comedy, Mystery, Film Noir
Kino Lorber| PG – 89 min. – $24.95 | September 21, 2021
Date Published: 10/02/2021 | Author: The Movieman
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Kino Lorber provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
PLOT SYNOPSIS |
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As the private eye of private eyes, Rigby Reardon (STEVE MARTIN) is tough, rough and ready to take on anything when Juliet Forrest (RACHEL WARD) appears on the scene with a case: her father, a noted scientist, philanthropist and cheesemaker, has died mysteriously. Reardon immediately smells a rat and follows a complex maze of clues that lead him to the “Carlotta Lists.” |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2¼/5 |
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This release comes with a matted slip cover and the inner sleeve is reversible. Features aren’t plentiful but there is an Audio Commentary by Filmmaker Allan Arkush and Film Historian/Filmmaker Daniel Kremer; some Radio & TV Spots and the Theatrical Trailer. |
VIDEO – 4/5 |
| Kino Lorber releases Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid onto Blu-ray shown in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. There’s no mention of this being a new transfer made for KL, so likely this is what was received from Universal. Even so, and while it’s not exactly a brilliant looking picture, still looks pretty good all in all, detail is decent enough especially for the close-ups and the black and white presentation looks quite nice throughout. It’s not perfect with some minor specs, however (that is, the non-archive footage). |
AUDIO – 4/5 |
| The disc comes equipped with a standard but more than effective DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. There’s not much to this movie in terms of any action so everything is front (or sides in this case) loaded. Dialogue does come through with nice clarity and there were no hints of any hissing or pops, which is commendable for what seems like an overlooked film in Martin’s extensive career, and one that’s going on 40 years old. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.