The idea [to intercut a film with clips from old films] is not overwhelmingly novel, but it never wearies when well used…. The intercutting idea is deftly used [in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid]…. It might have been really hilarious with a leading actor of comic talent. Steve Martin is not. In Pennies from Heaven, of course, he wasn't supposed to be funny, and wasn't anything else either. But I've seen some of his comedy routines on TV, and the only explanation I can find for his success is that he's inept. Martin is clumsy and insipid, and when an amateurish square comes out with an arrow "piercing" his head, talking about his wildness and craziness, it amuses people the way the branch manager of a bank might amuse his staff by putting on a paper hat at the Christmas party. The question is: how far can Martin's...