Lawrence Jamieson was a con man living in a small town on the French Riviera. He was very suave and debonair and targeted wealthy female tourists. He came up with different things, but had recently been claiming to be a Prince who was trying to raise money to help the people of his country. Freddie Benson was a small time con man from America looking to take advantage of women in the Riviera. The two men didn’t get along, but Lawrence did agree to work with Freddie and teach him to improve his conning abilities.
The two men actually worked well together for a while running a con that had Freddy pretending to be Lawrence’s special brother. Freddy wanted to go out on his own while Lawrence just wanted Freddie to leave town. The two men came up with a bet involving Janet, an American tourist, to decide who was the better con man.
I only just learned that Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake of the movie Bedtime Story that came out in 1964 when I was double checking cast information online. I have never seen the original movie, though from the little bit I did read, it sounds like the plot was almost identical. Even the names of the main characters were the same. Since I haven’t seen the earlier movie, I have no idea what would have been changed for the new version. A musical version debuted on Broadway a few years ago and I believe it was successful.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was mostly focused on the rivalry between Lawrence and Freddie. The movie wasn’t really complicated even though a lot was going on. I thought that the idea for the plot was interesting and made for an entertaining movie. I thought I knew how certain things would work out, but I was wrong. At first it seemed like the movie would be predictable. That wasn’t the case since there were a few surprises. I thought that the surprises worked very well for the movie and made sense with everything that happened.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was set in a small town in the French Riviera. Lawrence had been living there and running his sophisticated cons for a while. I’m not sure how long he had been there, but I’m thinking he had been running his cons there for several years at least. He seemed firmly established in the area and local connections. The town was full of wealthy residents as well as being a vacation destination for wealthy tourists. It really was a beautiful location. I’m not sure if the town depicted in the movie was real or just footage combined from different cities. It did look like a realistic city to me, though I’ve never been to the Riviera, so I could be wrong about how realistic it looked.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a funny movie overall even though there were some scenes that didn’t have any humor at all in them. Those were the scenes that tended to be a little slower paced. I wasn’t bored by the slower parts, but some people could feel differently. Most of the humor happened when Freddy and Lawrence were working together to con women. The way that Freddy acted when he was pretending to be Lawrence’s brother was really funny even though those scenes did get silly. Freddy was a bit over the top during that part of the movie, but it fit in perfectly with the con he and Lawrence were running at the time. I don’t think it would have worked as well if it done in a more subtle manner.
The beginning of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels took a little bit of time to establish how Lawrence ran his con on unsuspecting women. He was only shown posing as a prince trying to raise money to help the people of his country. I don’t remember ever hearing what country he was supposed to be from. It was made clear that he didn’t have a problem sleeping with the women he targeted. There were a few sexual discussions and a few sexual situations without there being any actual sex scenes. I don’t remember hearing any swearing. The movie was rated PG, so there wasn’t anything too objectionable in it.
Lawrence was a very refined, sophisticated man who made his living conning female tourists. He put a lot of effort into his work and even had a local police officer named Andre helping. He was able to think quickly when opportunities presented themselves. Michael Caine was very good and believable in the part. I do think he was funnier in Miss Congeniality.
Freddie had heard about all the rich women in the Riviera which was why he decided to go there. He’d been content with getting small amounts from women until he got to the Riviera and discovered there was potential to do so much better. He wanted to learn from Lawrence and have that sort of success, but he did get impatient with the process. Steve Martin was great in the part, especially during the times when he was acting like Lawrence’s brother.
Janet was the woman from America targeted by Freddie and Lawrence for their bet. She was in town on vacation and the men spotted her just as she was arriving at her hotel. She was very sweet and trusting, so she believed all the bizarre things that Freddy and Lawrence came up with. Glenne Headly fit the part well and did a good job with it. Ian McDiarmid turned up in the small part of Arthur, Lawrence’s butler. McDiarmid is probably best known for his part in the Star Wars movies. Anton Rodgers turned up every so often as Andre, the local police officer who assisted Lawrence.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a funny, entertaining movie that is worth watching. Fans of Steve Martin or Michael Caine should give the movie a chance.