Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is a genuinely singular comedic achievement built around the audacious technical conceit of seamlessly intercutting Steve Martin with classic noir footage from the 1940s. The cinematography earns a 4 for the meticulous black-and-white matching work by Michael Chapman that makes the collage feel cohesive rather than gimmicky — a real craft accomplishment. Novelty likewise earns a 4 because no film before or since has executed this repurposed-footage parody concept with such precision and commitment; it is truly one-of-a-kind. Acting is above average — Martin is perfectly calibrated to the deadpan hardboiled register and Rachel Ward is a good sport — but the ensemble is limited by the format. The plot is deliberately thin and disposable, functioning only as a delivery mechanism for the next classic film clip, which keeps it below average as a narrative. The ending is similarly weak, collapsing into absurdist Nazi-cheese silliness that feels rushed and unsatisfying even by parody standards.