Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Here's another magazine pull-out poster promotion I found. This time it's for the Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982). It's a mock quiz that's actually pretty funny and cleaver, and it makes me wonder if Steve Martin himself helped with the writing...

Read the story of Detecto-Vision

Finally here's the poster...

... and here's the trailer too!

5 comments:

Lisa said...

Great to see a post on this terrific movie! I vividly remember when it came out and I loved it and it holds up wonderfully! As a sidenote, I became phone pals with co-writer George Gipe at the time he was working on this and "The Man With Two Brains" with Martin and Reiner. I was in Programming at KTLA-TV in L.A. and we used to chat about The Three Stooges! He was a terrific guy, so nice and so smart -- did you know he tragically died of a bee sting in his backyard in L.A., not long after doing these films? Such a loss...

Thanks again for a fun posting!

David W. said...

Thanks for the comment, and the cool story Lisa. I had never heard of George Gipe before, but he sounded like a swell guy. Wow, a bee sting, that's a freakish way to go.

Anonymous said...

Hi David - many thanks for finding the print promotion for DMDWP - as you say, so beautifully done you wonder who was behind it. Thanks for saving it from oblivion! Keep up the good work - Martin.

George Escalera said...

Terrific post. I had never seen that promotional piece but very much enjoyed Steve Martin and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (I think I a lot of people that went to see the movie didn't "get" the joke).

I also knew George Gipe. We met on the set of an HBO show that was directed by Barry Levinson called The Investigators, a send up of so-called magazine shows. It starred the late Charles Rocket and the comics Mark King and Bill Kirchenbauer. In featured segments was a young Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Reiser.

Anyway, George was a very quiet man, built like a fire plug and would watch the proceedings intently. He always had a writing pad and pencil with him and he would quickly scribble a gag onto the pad and tear off the sheet and hand it to Barry who would read it and smile then work it out with the performers. George's face would break out into a broad smile as the scene came to life.

Not long after wrapping that show I read about his sudden death in the Times and showed the obit to the Producers, Peter Locke and Jonathan Debin. They were shocked to read of it. They later told me how they called George's son and how he related that George had been in the back yard when he entered the house and said he didn't feel very good and lay down on the sofa and soon after was found to be dead.

Very sad.

(The Investigators was only on for I think six installments and then disappeared. I can't find it anywhere not even listed on IMDb. It was kind of uneven but had it been picked up, it would have found its footing)

Unknown said...

I was at the premiere in Toronto and actually have one of these DMDWP posters. Wow I remember just loving it and I cherished the poster. I loved all the tongue in cheek antics and the fantastic re-creation of the fireworks scene with the crowd costumes matching so perfectly. I bet they hated hearing on the set "Cut - Reset - Let's do it again!"
Not given the credit it deserves.

A lot of my friends didn't get it and still don't.

A Classic in its own right.

I still use (sp) ina macha frow when talking about a cleaning woman.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails