Its now November and at this time of year you begin to wonder just where the hell al the time has gone??? Do you not? Well anyway as its a new month I thought it was time I got on with another review, and this one is of the comedy film, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin as two rival con artists who try to outwit each other. So let's do the usual stuff and have a look at the flick....
OK so it all begins with Lawrence Jamieson (Caine) who is a suave British con man who operates in a small town Beaumont-Sur Mer on the French Riviera. Lawrence in his routine pretends to be a wealthy prince who is fighting for the freedom of his people (although the country of his so called people is left undisclosed!) and in doing so allures very wealthy and corrupt women into giving their money over to him. However trouble looms ahead for Lawrence as he meets a small time American con man, Freddy Benson (Martin) who intends to find some easy marks as well in Beaumont-Sur Mer. At this time Lawrence also learns from the newspapers that a young American con artist is working in Europe, and Lawrence assumes it is Freddy and as he sees Freddy with his next intended mark, Lawrence arranges for Freddy to be arrested by the town's police inspector, Andre (Anton Rodgers). Lawrence pretends to help out Freddy to get out of jail and insists that he must leave town as he may be reported to Interpol and will not be able to return to Europe.
However on the flight back home, Freddy encounters a woman on the plane Fanny Eubanks (Barbara Harris) who spotted him shaking Lawrence's hand and she refers to Lawrence as the prince (as she was Lawrence's mark at the start of the film) which then lets Freddy twig that Lawrence is also a charlatan. Freddy then heads back to Beaumont sur-mer and asks Lawrence to take him on as a student to learn from him in exchange for keeping silent about Lawrence's scams. Lawrence then tries to teach Freddy about high culture and he get's him involved in his scams as Freddy pretends to be Ruprecht, a socially inept and mentally challenged character to scare away the female targets after Lawrence has secured their money. However afterwards Lawrence doesn't pay Freddy any money and insists that if he were to spend his money it should be on art and culture. Freddy however becomes infuriated by Lawrence's attitude and decides to leave town, with Lawrence deliberately playing along to make it happen. However Freddy soon returns again and he proposes that they make a bet and whoever loses will leave town. Lawrence decides that they should pick a woman and try to extract $50,000 from her and they end up picking Janet Colgate (Glenne Headly) a young naive American heriess, and from here both men try to do outdo one another in an effort to win the bet but along the way they get more than they bargained for.
As far as farces go Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is very entertaining and even after 25 years its still a laugh and it works really well thanks to the casting of Michael Caine and Steve Martin in the two lead roles. The film also is based on the 1960s comedy film Bedtime Story starring Marlon Brando and David Niven in which the leads characters are also two con artists and they have the same names as the two characters in DRS. The two characters are also a good contrast with Lawrence being the sauve British gentleman who charms his way into taking women's money away, and Freddy the hustling American con man who is less subtle in his tactics to get what he wants.
Which brings neatly onto the performances of the film which are excellent, starting with Michael Caine who does a wonderful job as Lawrence Jamieson, charming and sauve on the outside, but crafty and manipulative on the inside. Caine plays the part perfectly throughout and he get's alot of great dialogue, such as in the scene where we first meet Ruprecht, who get's a bit too friendly with Lawrence's fake wife to be, who they are conning, and Lawrence says warningly "Ruprecht, do you want the genital cuff?!". And as Ruprecht runs dementedly around his room banging his pots yelling "Oklahoma!" Lawrence looks down at the traumitised female mark and says "Ruprecht will love Oklahoma. He's to love run and run!". And later when Lawrence drives Freddy back from a party, Freddy says why don't they change the bet to the first one that get's Janet into bed, and Lawrence says "Don't you have an emotion that doesn't originate below the waist?!". He also does a really good job in his pretend role as Dr Emille Shauffhausen, the German psychiatrist who treats Freddy's pretend character, a psychologically crippled US Army soldier who is in a wheelchair. And as Shauffhausen he also get's some good lines, especially where he says to Janet as he decides to take on Freddy as a patient "Oh I will have him running, jumping, shouting and screaming before I am finished, or my name isn't Dr Emille Shauffhausen! The 3rd!" as he whips Freddy's legs with a large flower stem! Which brings me to probably Caine's funniest scene where he tests out Freddy's responses to being hit with the flower stem to see if he can feel anything, and he rolls up Freddy's trousers and says "we will need to try something a bit more stringent!" starts with a light tap on his legs, leading finally up to a big long run and almighty thwack across Freddy' legs! Also in the scene where he walks with Freddy around the town after Freddy comes back and he says to him "We all have our limitations, Freddy, and we all have have to accept them. What I'm saying is: know your limitations, Freddy. You are a moron!".
Which brings me onto Steve Martin who is great as Freddy Benson, the cocky American con artist who uses a puppy dog act in trying to charm women into giving their money over to him. Although it has to be said that Freddy is hardly a subtle con man, and surely his methods would have been spotted miles away! Regardless of that though Martin has plenty of funny scenes such as when he is thrown in jail by the local police inspector Andre, and he frantically tries to remember Lawrence's name. "His name James Jessenben! Lawerence Jesterton!" and Andre eventually says "Lawrence Jamieson?" and Freddy replies estatically "Yes! Yes! We're like this!" (fingers crossed). As Ruprecht, Martin also provides some of the funniest moments in the film, especially in the scene where he is first introduced as the mentally challenge character and he is introduced to Lawrence's female mark, and as Ruprecht he says "Mother?" and Lawrence tells him she's not his mother and Rup says "Not mother?!" and he later frantically runs around the room banging his pot and pan yelling "Oklahoma!" over and over (as that is where Lawrence intends to get married to one of his marks). Also in the next scene as Ruprecht when they sit at the dinner table and he spits out his apple sauce, and wearing and eyepatch, he looks over to Lawrence and says "Excuse me, may I go to the bathroom first?" and he proceeds to pretend and piss himself and says "Thank you!". And in Ruprecht last moment as he, Lawrence and another female mark drive in a car, Ruprecht puts his arm around the woman and says "Oh Lawrence, this is the happiest day of my life! I feel like my testicles are dropping!". I also like the moment where Freddy grows tired of Lawrence's methods of keeping him down during his tuition, and Lawrence says he wouldn't give his money unless he spent it on art and culture and Freddy says "I've got culture coming out of my ass!". And later as they argue together driving back from dropping off Janet about how Janet has told Lawrence she could only raise the money by selling everything she owns off except for her mink, and Freddy says cynically "Oh she'll still have the mink. So if we take her for everything at least she still have a very very nice mink!". Another funny momeny is where he give his tearful account of his made up story to Janet about how his former partner cheated on him with Danny Terio, the host of Dance USA, which broke his heart lead to his inability to walk. And he looks over and sees a couple dancing which sets him off into fake crying mode and he says "Oh God! They're dancing! Oh take me from this place!!". Another hilarious moment is when Freddy in his character as the soldier tells Janet that he loves her and he thinks that she is the only one that can help him walk again, and Janet encourages him to walk by telling Freddy she loves him too, and he slowly stands up and overcome with emotions he says "I'm standing! I'M STANDING!!" and he takes one step at a time unsteadily towards her, but he takes the last few steps with ease as he walks into her arms! And then Freddy urges Janet to move back by her hotel bedroom and walks step by step toward her and takes off his jacket and pulls off his tie as he laughs loudly and hugs her.
Glenne Headly also does a good job as Janet, the supposed soap star queen, who isn't everything she appears to be, as she comes over as being kind, warm and also a bit naive, but in the end turns out to be anything but! Glenne's performance is however a bit of a puzzle at times as I can't quite tell if she is actually a good actress or not in her depiction of Janet, as she isn't always that convincing sounding in her role and her voice. But that aside Glenne adds a welcome charm to the film as Janet who appears to be a lovely kind hearted woman, but unbeknownst to Larry and Freddy is really playing them both like a harp. And her best moment actually comes at the end (PLOT SPOILER!!!!!!) where she turns up back at Lawrence's villa in disguise as a New York real estate agent with some tourists and get's them involved her new scam. And says to the men "Fellas last year I made 3 million dollars, but your 50,000 was the most fun. Are you ready? Well let's go get em!".
And finally Anton Rodgers is great in his role as the corrupt Inspector Andre, who is a partner in Lawrence's scams. Rodgers affects an amusing and silly French accent, and has a few funny moments such as in his first scene where he confidentially takes Fanny Eubanks aside and tells her about Lawrence's fake persona of the prince and he pushes her up against a palm tree, which makes a loud rattling noise and he says to her "There may also be an emotional risk. You see the prince has been a widower for five years". Also in the scene where Freddy is in a holding cell at the police station and Freddy says about the woman who filed a complaint against him "She caught me with another woman! Come on, you're French you can understand that!" and Andre replies "To be with another woman is French, to be caught that is American!".
Getting on to Frank Oz, who does a great job here as the director and he keeps the tone of the film nice and light, and he would later on also direct another one of Steve Martin's films, Bowfinger, and has previously directed other films such as The Score, In and Out and Little Shop of Horrors (also starring Martin). Miles Goodman also provides a pleasant jaunty music score which suits the tone of the film perfectly and also features a version of "Putting on the Ritz" by Irving Berlin.
So the flawsssss bit. Does Dirty Rotten Scoundrels have any??? Well yup. For starters I don't quite buy that when Janet tells Lawrence (who plays Shauffhausen at this point) that she had to sell everything she owned to help pay for Freddy's therapy, that Lawrence actually believes her or would be so easily duped into falling for it. And you get at that point that surely something must be up with Janet, and perhaps also at this point you get that Freddy is that little bit wiser when he says "At least she'll still have a very very mink!" which on some level suggests he does know something is up. There is also no doubting that the story is pretty predictable and you know where it is going right from the start and as soon as we see Janet we know that she is a player (especially as she gives a sly look in her opening scene when she arrives at the hotel). As I already mentioned it has to be said that Freddy's character is a bit annoying at times, as he is a cynical cocky asshole in his normal persona and is a (literally) teary eyed and over affectionate puppy dog in his fake persona (although it is quite impressive how Freddy can make himself cry on demand, good skill to have!).
Anyway regardless of that, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels still remains a thoroughly enjoyable comedy 25 years on and it works so well thanks to the excellent partnership of the two leads, and if you haven't seen it, I'd recommend to give it a go.
So with that I shall say au revoir!
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