NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (September 2021): Kino have transferred Carl Reiner's Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid to Blu-ray. It is the best of the three compared - a darker, more faithful image with richer, deeper black levels. The Pulp Video transfer was an MPEG-2 joke (with lossy Dolby) and the Fabulous Films was underwhelming. The Kino Blu-ray exports a dual-layered transfer with a max'ed out bitrate and is, indeed, the best 1080P rendering by far.   

NOTE: We have added 60 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (24-bit) in the original English language. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid has few gunshots that come through with surprising depth. It sounds hollow - which is probably an intentional effect to mimic the mono of the many referenced films. A big deal is the score by Miklós Rózsa (his last score!) famous for music in many of the film clips featured in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid - The Lost Weekend, The Killers, Double Indemnity as well as Rózsa's massive body of composures that include The Naked City, Criss Cross, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers etc. etc.) sounding clean with an delightful mood (more homage) via the lossless. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray. 

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new commentary by filmmaker Allan Arkush and film historian/filmmaker Daniel Kremer. They discuss the Rózsa score, the fashions - Edith Head's last film!, the painstaking detail of matching the black and white art direction so that it blended with the Noir inserts of past films, the vintage Universal logo, Carl Reiner, Rachel Ward, Steve Martin and, of course, they identify all the 'cameos' and films that are used. Kino include 4 radio spots, 3 TV Spots, a Buttometer teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer. The package has another of Kino's O-card slipcases with a reversible sleeve (see below.)

Carl Reiner's Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is for Noir aficionados who can't get enough. It's a wonderful 'drinking game' identifying the referenced clips as well as seeing so many of the great 'dark cinema' stars of the past. It's pure fun coupled with nostalgia. Steve Martin and Rachel Ward are perfect to fit into the addictive post-modernist cycle homage with incredible costumes, the monochrome, the 40's style sets etc.. Finally, the film gets it deserved home theater edition via the Kino Blu-ray which has a high-end transfer, a fun, revealing commentary and appealing packaging. A very easy recommendation!

Gary Tooze