Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1991)

Made well before the brand of digital special effects magic associated with the likes of Forrest Gump became standard issue in Hollywood, this gimmick comedy allows Steve Martin to play scenes opposite Humphrey Bogart (as Philip Marlowe), Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Burt Lancaster, Vincent Price and others by deftly matching sets and lighting styles (even film grains), using invisible doubles and occasionally splicing Martin into images taken from the likes of The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity, The Killers, This Gun for Hire, The Lost Weekend, In a Lonely Place, Dark Passage, Notorious and White Heat. It's not really a feature length idea, but Martin's deft private dick Rigby Reardon, rolling coins over his knuckles and spitting out wisecracks is amusing, and breathy Rachel Ward turns in a good performance as a Lauren Bacall style slinky female. The plot starts out as the usual investigation into the heroine's father's death and winds up with the revelation that a Nazi super-villain overplayed by director Carl Reiner is scheming to destroy America with exploding cheeses. Recognising a good thing when he sees it, Reiner poaches much of the climax from The Bribe, a little-known 1949 thriller with Robert Taylor and Vincent Price tangling amid the chaos of a South American carnival, which means some impressive sets and costumes get on the screen at little expense.
KIM NEWMAN

First Published on: The BBC Films website

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