I was ten when the movie came out, my dad encouraged me to watch it years later when it played on television. I was hooked...Brando is uproarious as the American GI in Europe, an egotist, sometimes crude, a hustler, preying on gorgeous woman through sympathy, his good looks and his almost pathetic hilarious charm....David Niven is the slick, cool, rich charming Englishman and yes, he's also as conniving as Brando. Though Niven is a bit smarter than "Freddy" (Brando) - It makes for a weird but funny and brief partnership between Niven and Brando, to seduce & fleece some very rich, sometimes beautiful, but always naive, trusting & very willing women.And thus begins an even funnier competition between Brando and Niven, as the movie really gets rolling along...as each character underestimates the other in cons and setups, then untimely outwits the other...all the way until the final twist of an ironic and funny ending to the film.Yes, there are indeed a couple of silly and corny scenes...but overall the movie is a very funny farce, as enjoyable & well written comedy to come out of that early 60's era, (1964) or any era for that matter....Brando is truly terrific - Accept no substitutes, i.e., "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"!

How about that... I never knew that Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake. I enjoyed the remake but was always, ALWAYS disappointed that Steve Martin was supposed to be the 'younger' guy...what a joke. Now, seeing the original i realize my instinct was right on. Casting Michael Caine for David Niven was a good choice... Casting Steve Martin for Marlon Brando??!? While Steve Martin did a good enough job, i can only imagine how much more interesting/funny it would be with someone else doing Freddy. When Steve Martin says towards the middle of the film that he's younger than Michael Caine, all i could think was...by 2 years?! Something that i almost NEVER do, is like the remake as much as the original. In this case, i almost like both equally. The original is still slightly better, mostly because of the quality of actors. The original ending is slightly better as well. While i like the ending of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the ending in the original is much more satisfying... :D Now, if only i could own both on a high quality DVD/BluRay in Widescreen...

I didn't expect much from this movie.I saw the Steve Martin/Michael Caine remake, I tend to like Brando in movies, so I wanted to see it purely out of curiosity. The fact that it is not generally available left me guessing it was probably not a very good movie. That it was a light comedy from the sixties did not seem to bode well. And as much as I tend to like Brando in movies, I always have a vague foreboding that any of his movies will be one of the very BAD ones he made.I found a copy on Amazon.com and added it to my wish list and kind of forgot it. One of these days, I thought, I will get around to watching it.Then for Christmas my step-mother got it for me.But it turned out to be region 2, so I couldn't watch it anyway.Finally I got a region-free player (I already had three other movies that I got in a similar way that were non-region-1.) And I watched this last night.This movie had me HOWLING, at times at least.There is a scene towards the start. Brando's character is trying to seduce the town Burgermeister's daughter. He has managed to strip down to his underwear under rather bizarre pretenses.Unexpectedly, her dad, the Burgermeister, walks in at just that moment.Brando says: "Good evening sir ... I suppose you're WONDERING what I'm DOING here!" Now I know that's not funny to read. But you have to see Brando's facial expression at just that moment. It is truly hilarious.I don't know how to describe it. It's like a mix of cunning, genius, utter stupidity and complete insanity all at the same time. If it weren't the early sixties I would say it also threw cokehead psychosis in there ... which, undoubtedly, is not the case, but it is so completely INSANE and conniving that you could throw anything in the description.I rewound it three times and played it back and it had me howling every time.I have seen Brando be funny in interviews (with Dick Cavett, for instance) but I thought Brando in a comedy would be painful. But this is not just good, it's great. In my opinion anyway; comedy is a funny thing.Anyway it is not just that one scene; that one, if you see the movie, hopefully you will see what I mean. There are a number of scenes that I think are comic gold. Brando outflanking his commanding Colonel. Brando blithely explaining the facts of life to David Niven when they first meet. Brando playing the mentally-challenged young Prince.In fact really, a lot of the best moments are, in my opinion, Brando as a comic. Which blows my mind, I tend to associate him with serious, even over-the-top-serious, roles.My personal review then overall is that this movie has a large number of scenes that are extremely funny and if you like good comedy, are well worth going to the trouble of finding a copy and even getting a region-free player.Now, I don't think this movie is perfect, by a long shot.The one scene with Brando and the Burgermeister's daughter, after the great moment that impressed me so much, Brando walks out, doing calisthenics as he goes.This to me is a lame, TV-situation-comedy kind of pratfall.There are, similarly, some moments that feel very weak, like something on "I Love Lucy" at its worst.Worse ... as much as I loved a lot of this movie, honestly, I think it only really holds up well about half-way through.Somewhere around the half-way mark, I think they had basically taken advantage of the really good comedic potential of the premise. After a certain point, the really stand-out comedic moments are gone, and the movie is just developing and resolving it's plot.I can't see how they could have got around it, the plot had to work it's way out. But it's just not funny anymore. Not -really- funny. I can't think of any really funny moments after Shirley Jones has really gotten involved in the plot.Despite that, I still think this is a very funny movie well worth seeing, I highly recommend it, and if your sense of humor is anything like mine, you will get some good laughs about halfway through.I can't imagine watching it that far without having the urge to see how the plot works out, so you will probably watch the second half.Maybe you can catch up on your email while you see how it ends.

Bedtime Story is a fine comedy with two superb actors. The story, the rhythm of the movie and the acting is characteristic of the best period of the English, American, Italian and French comedy. No special effects, just a good story and good acting. Excellent!. Good comedies in the fifties, sixties and seventies were common, Bedtime Story is one, Prudence and the Pill, The Pink Panther, How to Murder Your Wife, The Statue, The Ladykillers, etc… I do not like re-makes in general, but I hate bad re-makes. The bad news is that the list of re-makes is growing. Is it because they lack creativity and ingenuity? Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a really bad one. I wonder why Steve Martin keeps trying to show the world how lousy actor and worse comedian he is compared to Brando or Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther. The same for the 2004 version of The Ladykillers, it is awful. So, my recommendation is: stick to the originals.