This film couldn't miss, for me as I love Steve Martin's irresistibly funny early films and rank film noir as probably my favourite movie genre.<br /><br />Right from the start, we're comfortingly deposited back into the noir era, with the classic Universal revolving black and white logo presaging Miklos Rosza's sweeping score and the equally welcome news, in the title credits, that the great (sadly soon to be late) Edith Head is costume designer. From there, it's a short journey into beautifully shot monochromatic cinematography and Martin's deliberately clichéd voice-over, setting the scene for a roller-coaster plot, as deliberately convoluted, as anything this side of "The Maltese Falcon" or "The Big Sleep".<br /><br />The humour is typical early-Martin which you either love or hate (I'm in the former camp) and as ever Steve's not above a little vulgarity to drive out the bigger laughs - for instance his hilarious re-organising of passed-out leading lady Rachel Ward's "out of whack" breasts or his answer to Lana Turner's "What are we going to do now" question as she enters his bedroom - "Kinsey, cover-to-cover".<br /><br />The vintage film-clips are cleverly inserted into the plot, so that we get a dream cast, their lines and actions woven even if tenuously into the narrative, although ironically the poorer film-quality of some of their scenes work against the glossier quality of the modern camera-work.<br /><br />Martin's by turns quirky and laconic delivery works well in context although Rachel Ward, pretty as she is, seems too lightweight in her part, although she does have some considerable footprints to step into (Bette or Lana she isn't). A Kathleen Turner (later brilliant in Martin's sci-fi spoof "The Man With Two Brains") or Jessica Lange (not long out of a noir remake "The Postman Always Rings Twice") would I think have worked better. Even director Reiner gets a "No show without Punch" role as the scheming "want the world" Nazi dictator behind the shenanigans.<br /><br />The jokes come thick and fast and there are plenty of running gags to keep you entertained throughout. I myself will try to look up one or two of the vintage prototypes which I hadn't even heard of, never-mind seen, - "I Walked Alone" starring Kirk Douglas and especially "The Bribe" with a stellar cast of Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton and Vincent Price, with what looks like a literally crackerjack of a finale.<br /><br />The combination of old film and new was later taken up by Woody Allen in "Zelig" and was further elaborated on in subsequent Hollywood films like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and the overrated "Forrest Gump", but I'll take Messrs Martin & Reiner's stylish rib-tickling homage any day of the week. Just don't mention the cleaning lady!