Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Blu-ray Movie Review

Dueling Crazy Comics

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 11, 2013

One of the best comic duos in modern cinema made only a single film, but it's a gem that hasn't aged a day in the twenty-five years since its Christmas 1988 release. Steve Martin was the first to be cast in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Frank Oz was a natural fit as director, having worked with Martin on previous projects like The Muppet Movie and Little Shop of Horrors. It's unclear who first suggested the unlikely pairing of Martin with Michael Caine, but the responsible party deserves a medal. With the possible exception of Dan Ackroyd and the late Gilda Radner, no other partner has inspired Martin to the heights of comic lunacy he achieved opposite Caine. And Caine, whom no one at the time considered a comedian, revealed a talent for both physical shtick and character impressions that had gone heretofore untapped.

The script was a remake of a 1964 film, Bedtime Story, written by Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning, which had also starred an odd couple of David Niven and Marlon Brando, but to less memorable effect. Writer Dale Launer (Ruthless People and My Cousin Vinny) updated the script about two competing con men, but retained the basic structure, except for the ending, which Martin and Oz invented during production in the south of France. (Oz describes the process in his commentary.) But Caine and Martin routinely departed from the script, improvising dialogue whenever the mood took them. As Oz immediately sensed, they inspired each other in friendly competition. Any comedy director worth his salt would have been crazy not to sit back and capture the fireworks.

Forming the third point of the triangle was Glenne Headly, a relative newcomer playing the intended target of the two swindlers. Initially daunted by such eminent company, Headly was repeatedly encouraged by Martin to contribute ideas and try new approaches. Headly's impact on Dirty Rotten Scoundrels cannot be understated. Even though her character, Janet Colgate, does not appear until forty-five minutes into the film, her arrival supercharges the Caine/Martin chemistry, as her character's reactions spur the competitors to ever wilder flights of invention. And Headly keeps adding new and unexpected layers right to the end.

The film is set in the fictional coastal town of Beaumont-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, which Oz and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus consciously photographed like a place lost in time, perhaps stuck in the 1950s. Here, a sophisticated Englishman, Lawrence Jamieson (Caine), makes a fine living separating rich widows who married for money from a piece of their fortune. Lawrence poses as royalty from an obscure European principality now overrun by communists who desperately needs to raise money for his freedom fighters. After being charmed and romanced, women like Fanny Eubanks of Omaha (Barbara Harris) are all too willing to contribute to the cause, thereby paying a steep price for their holiday adventure.

Lawrence has the town wired. The police chief, Andre (Anton Rodgers), helps him screen his targets, and the butler, Arthur (Ian McDiarmid), who oversees his luxurious villa on the outskirts of town provides whatever wardrobe or props he needs. A bank in Zurich holds the profits secure from prying eyes.

But one day, on the train returning from Zurich, Lawrence encounters Freddy Benson (Martin), a small time hustler with a crass yarn about his grandmother who needs an operation that he uses to con gullible women out of petty cash and dinner. Lawrence eyes him with a mixture of amusement and contempt, until Freddy indicates an interest in working Lawrence's territory in Beaumont-sur-Mer. Then he tries several increasingly aggressive strategies to encourage Freddy's departure.

Finally, in exasperation, Lawrence takes on Freddy as a "student", which leads to an extended and ludicrous sequence in which Freddy is made over into a debonair gentleman—really, more a parody of Lawrence than a copy. But it's never clear why Freddy needs the training, because his part in Lawrence's act is to play His Royal Highness' younger brother, "Prince Ruprecht", a "special" young man who scares off rich women with antic behavior after Lawrence has fleeced them. (In his commentary, Oz notes that he and Martin took pains to make "Ruprecht" so ridiculous that no one would think they were making sport of the mentally challenged.)

Eventually, though, Freddy tires of playing "Ruprecht the Monkey Boy" and decides to strike out on his own. Since Beaumont-sur-Mer isn't big enough for the two of them, Lawrence proposes a wager. They will select a woman, set a price and the first to extract it from her gets to stay. Just at that moment, Janet Colgate (Headly) enters the hotel lobby where the rivals are sitting and falls flat on her face amidst her massive luggage. She's younger than Lawrence's usual type ("Out of your league?" sneers Freddy), but he agrees and sets the price at $50,000 ("Out of your league?" sneers Lawence, when Freddy protests). And off they go, in joint pursuit of the woman whom the hotel maître d' identifies as "the U.S. Soap Queen".

It would be unfair to first time viewers to reveal the strategies pursued by the competing con men in their quest for Janet's money. Lawrence begins with his standard method at the roulette table, but he's quickly interrupted by Freddy with something completely unexpected and is forced to improvise, which he does with great relish—which is no doubt partly Caine's relish at doing things so thoroughly out of his usual range, including a German accent that Oz didn't initially think would work. (It does.) Headly is the ideal straightwoman, bouncing back and forth between these two seething bundles of lies and greed, showing Janet having a better time than she ever imagined when she arrived in this elegant resort town.

Who wins the bet? Watch the film. You won't regret it.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Director Oz relied heavily on cinematographer Michael Ballhaus (a frequent collaborator with Martin Scorsese) to light "Beaumont-sur-Mer" (really, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Nice and other locations in the south of France) in a colorful manner that would both look beautiful and sustain the fantasy of a world suspended in time. The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray with a transfer by MGM and mastering by Fox provides exceptional color rendition, capturing both the saturated hues of the brightly dressed beautiful people and the delicate pastels of the gently lit shoreline at night. The blacks of the men's tuxedos in the casino are dark and solid, and the contrast is appropriately set to show the sequins, stitching and jeweled ornamentation in the women's gowns. Lawrence's luxurious villa reveals its elegant decor in all its detail, as does his fine wardrobe and perfect grooming. Headly looks splendid in her various outfits. So, for that matter, do "Lady Fanny" of Omaha and the rest of Lawrence's marks.

The film has a natural grain pattern with no signs of filtering or other digital tampering, and the high average bitrate of 38.85 Mbps provides assurance against compression artifacts. The sole negative is some minor print damage in the form of speckling that becomes most pronounced in the last fifteen minutes of the film. I did not find it distracting, having grown up watching film prints that always had some amount of dirt or damage, but anyone accustomed to flawless digital cinema should be forewarned.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was released in Dolby Surround, which has been remixed for 5.1 and is presented here in lossless DTS-HD MA. Frank Oz is a firm believer in the importance of sound in comedy. In the commentary, he describes spending $20,000 just to reopen the mix to add a single effect that had been inadvertently dropped. However, his comic/sonic sense remained front-oriented, and so does the mix. The surrounds are limited to ambiance and support for the marvelously playful score by Miles Goodman (What About Bob? ), which contributes as much to isolating the story in its own private world as the photography and production design.

The dialogue is always clear and well prioritized, and the track's dynamic range is wide, with deep bass extension, although the latter is rarely used. You hear its full depth only once, in a discotheque scene where the bass from the dance music genuinely throbs.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras have been ported over from MGM's 2001 DVD of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. (An earlier release by Image in 1997 had no extras.) Omitted is Frank Oz's brief commentary on the "Teaser Trailer", in which he explains that they shot it specially before they had enough footage for a regular trailer.

As is unfortunately still the practice with MGM's Blu-rays of catalog titles, which are mastered by Fox, there is no main menu, and the disc is formatted with BD-Java with the bookmarking feature omitted. If you stop the disc during playback, there is no way to mark your place and resume at the same spot.

• Commentary with Director Frank Oz: Recording this commentary in 2001, Oz notes that he hadn't viewed the film in years, but watching it obviously brings back many happy memories, as well as making him laugh repeatedly. Laughing during takes was a constant hazard on the set of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Oz points out scenes where Headly, facing away from the camera, kept her eyes closed so that she wouldn't see what Martin was doing, because otherwise she would lose her composure. Oz describes numerous technical details, identifies improvs, points out specific shots that Ballhaus developed, discusses post-production and describes how he and Martin developed the film's ending. This may be an insider's commentary, but it is delivered with the enthusiasm of a fan.



• Behind-the-Scenes Featurette (480i; 1.33:1; 6:47): Featuring interviews with Oz, Caine, Martin, Headly, Ballhaus and co-writer/executive producer Launer, this EPK made during production features entertaining on-set footage and captures the loose, improvisational feel that Oz describes in his commentary.



• Teaser Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:04): As Oz notes in the short commentary he recorded for the 2001 DVD (which is unfortunately not included here), viewers always see Steve Martin/Freddy's bad behavior, but few notice Michael Caine/Lawrence shoving the cotton candy in the little kid's face.



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:57): According to Wikipedia, no trailer was released for the film, because Oz didn't like any of the three trailers submitted for his review. This must be one of the three.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even within the canon of Steve Martin films, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is unique. Martin's Freddy is a recognizable variation on a character he's played many times: a conceited, narcissistic, self-important jerk who's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. But Freddy is curbed, curtailed and redirected in surprising ways by Caine's Lawrence and Headly's Janet, and Martin responds by making Freddy more interesting than some of his distant cousins in the comic's standup routines or in films like ¡Three Amigos! As for Caine, his acting choices are as unexpected as his taking the role in the first place. These two should pair up one more time, but if they don't, we'll always have Beaumont-sur-Mer. Highly recommended.