Daily Dialogue — August 17, 2014

Notes from Barbara Thomas: This spoof of/love letter to noir combines archival footage from classic noir films (including Double Indemnity!) with an original storyline, shot in black and white.

Steve Martin is Rigby Reardon, the only private dick who can out-Marlowe Marlowe. Just don’t say the words “cleaning woman” in front of him.

Rigby is hired by Juliet Forrest (Rachel Ward) to investigate the mysterious death of her father. Naturally, there’s chemistry…

Juliet Forrest: Sometimes I feel I would like to…
Rigby Reardon: [voice-over] You’d like to what? Kiss me? Yeah, that would be nice. It would give me a chance to tell her I was starting to feel something for her, too. Something warm and squishy. But how could I explain that a man in my business can’t take on a wife, have a bunch of kids?
Juliet Forrest: We wouldn’t have to have kids.
Rigby Reardon: [surprised] What?

— Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982), written by Carl Reiner & George Gipe & Steve Martin

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Voice-Over Narration. Today’s suggestion by Barbara Thomas.

Trivia: The movie was initially planned by Steve Martin and Carl Reiner to be a ‘30s-era film titled “Depression”. After Reiner incorporated some footage of a ’30s star into the movie, he and Martin decided that the entire movie should be done that way, and re-wrote it into a mock-detective story.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Barbara: “The voiceover is used throughout the film (in laconic, deadpan style of course!)would be at home in any noir film until that one line or two that reminds you how absurd it would be if people really did gaze into the middle distance while internally monologuing…”

If you have any suggestions for this week’s theme, please post in comments.

Comment Archive