Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. 1988. USA. Directed by Frank Oz. Screenplay by Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning. With Michael Caine, Steve Martin, Glenne Headly. 35mm courtesy Park Circus. 110 min.
One of the best comedies of the 1980s, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, about a pair of con men who scam rich snooty ladies on the French Riviera, was actually a remake of a lousy 1964 movie called Bedtime Story that starred Marlon Brando (of all people) opposite David Niven and Shirley Jones. Caine plays the straight man in the Niven role to an “off-the-wall” Steve Martin, recalling fondly, “I had worked with Frank [Oz] on The Muppet Christmas Carol and had great trust in him. My co-stars were Steve Martin, who I knew, admired, and liked a lot—he is actually quite a shy, reserved person when he’s not putting on a zany on-screen persona, and though he is best known for his comic acting he is also an incredibly talented writer and musician—and Glenne Headly, [who] turned out to be fabulous as a comic performer and a person. On set, we barely stopped laughing. The script was genuinely funny—I still think this is the funniest movie I ever made—while avoiding ever being cruel.”