Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a wonderful '80s comedy, the type we don't see any longer. Today the humor, for the most part, is vulgar. For some reason, in the '80s, comedies were actually funny.
Michael Caine and Steve Martin are two con man who wind up competing on the Riviera. Caine is a classy con man, Lawrence Jamieson, targeting rich widows as he sports different accents claiming he's funding a revolution for his country, helping the poor, the hungry, etc. Martin is Freddy Benson, lower class but after the same targets.
Freddy asks Lawrence to tutor him in the art of the high-class con. Freddy doesn't want him around as he feels the Riviera isn't big enough for both of them. Freddy, however, isn't leaving. So they agree on a bet. The first one to strip a young heiress (Glenne Headly) of $50,000 stays, and the other leaves.
What follows is hilarious. Both men are at the top of their game here. Steve Martin can make you laugh with a facial expression. The scene where he attempts to "walk" after being in a wheelchair is a riot. Caine as Lawrence is brilliant as a suave sophisticate, and his getting the better of Freddy in several scenes is a delight. The end has a neat twist.
This film was adapted into a successful Broadway musical, and it is opening in London starring Robert Lindsay ("My Family"). It's a fun story. Wish today we had more like this.
