Post by StevePulaski on May 12, 2019 11:01:03 GMT -5
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
Directed by: Frank Oz
Directed by: Frank Oz
Steve Martin and Michael Caine.
Rating: ★★½
The title of Frank Oz's 1988 comedy refers to Freddy Benson (Steve Martin), a conniving, low-rent American scam-artist, and Lawrence Jamieson (Michael Caine), an aloof French aristocrat who pretends to be part of a royal family in order to pull a fast one on tourists. Both men meet in Beaumont-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, where Freddy is vacationing, so to speak, by trying to swindle generous women out of money for his allegedly sick grandmother. Lawrence, on the other hand, enjoys the fine life of luxury he's amassed, and although Freddy is beneath him on the level of sophistication, he nonetheless recognizes his American counterpart is successful enough that he could reasonably undermine him in his homeland. And he can't have that.
The two shysters meet on a train. Lawrence's initial methods to get Freddy out of town prove futile, which leads the two to make a wager of $50,000 on who will be the first to con a wealthy American woman named Janet Colgate (Glenne Headly), who is on holiday in the Riviera. This, too, comes after Lawrence promises to school Freddy on the art of the con, only for Freddy to grow tired of humiliating tactics that only distract him from his next big hit. Pride and prowess is on the line with this wager, and, for Freddy, it's much more exciting than striking up small-talk on a train and eventually being handed a check for his grandmother's nonexistent hospital bills.
Freddy justifies his actions by saying that women inherently have the upper-hand in society. After all, men must battle ailments such as heart disease, and on average, die sooner and get taken in divorce court. Swindling is, in his mind, levying the playing field. We never really get the cut-and-dry reason why Lawrence does what he does, but he appears more principled than Freddy. He refuses to take advantage of the poor and the vulnerable, setting his sights on the wealthy and corrupt bourgeois who have built the foundation of their lives on the backs of works who've worked harder than they could ever imagine.
Based on the 1964 Marlon Brando/David Niven film Bedtime Story, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a breezy comedy ala Weekend at Bernie's, where despite high narrative stakes, there's a relaxed atmosphere thanks to the pictorial setting and the presence veteran actors. Through everything, Martin, Caine, and Headly look like they're having a good time, even if the script doesn't always appear to be giving them a great deal to do. One of the best — and most famous — scenes involves Lawrence inviting a woman over for dinner while Freddy impersonates a mentally challenged adult named "Ruprecht." Ruprecht knocks over a few vases and has a wine-cork attached to his fork to prevent him from hurting himself (he also dons an eye patch too). Here's a scene that produces a few notable bad laughs plus shows the conviction of Steve Martin even when he's at his silliest.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels needed more scenes like that one. Both Martin and Caine play their parts well, but it's tough to sense a dynamic from them. Con-men shouldn't necessarily have much chemistry, but the trio of writers (Dale Launer, who wrote My Cousin Vinny, Stanley Shapiro, and Paul Henning) craft the picture in such a way that makes both actors individually humorous as opposed to collectively amusing. They operate on different comic wavelengths and it produces more sporadic laughs than it probably should. Still, while we might see some of the film's surprises coming from a distance, certain asides are a lot of fun, and the final 15 minutes is a satisfying finale. Don't sleep on Headly, who plays sweetly simple very well and who gets respect from the writers, as they don't bury her under the story's more active participants in Martin and Caine.
Frank Oz has made a career of handling puppets in various Muppets projects, and he gets some fun ones to play with here. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is airy and entertaining, albeit undercooked. I didn't get the sense that the film maximized its possibilities nor that the script was smarter or more sly than the con-men at the center. It's mild, farcical fun, offering a couple memorable moments for the highlight reels of two splendid, zealous performers.
Starring: Steve Martin, Michael Caine, Glenne Headly, Anton Rodgers, and Barbara Harris. Directed by: Frank Oz.