Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Short description
Two con men working the French Riviera cross paths and find they cannot both operate in the same territory. Lawrence Jamieson has spent years posing as an exiled prince to charm money out of wealthy women, assisted by a butler and a police inspector who looks the other way. Freddy Benson, a crude American newcomer, runs a cheaper routine and quickly draws attention that threatens Lawrence's comfortable setup. After an attempt to work together fails, the two agree on a contest: the first to extract fifty thousand dollars from a woman visiting the coast stays, and the loser leaves.
Frank Oz directed the film, the fourth in the sequence of features he made between The Dark Crystal in 1982 and Death at a Funeral in 2007. The screenplay is credited to Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning, with Bernard Williams producing for Orion Pictures. Steve Martin plays Freddy and Michael Caine plays Lawrence, with Glenne Headly as the American heiress they target, alongside Anton Rodgers, Barbara Harris and Ian McDiarmid among twenty-one credited cast members.
Made for about seven million dollars, the film returned roughly forty-two million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.4 out of 10 from around eighty-six thousand votes, while on TMDB it rates 7.1 from over a thousand. A critics' rating of 7 out of 10 from forty-four reviews places it close to those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The scene in the prison, when Freddy tries to remember Lawrence’s name, was an improvisation conceived by Steve Martin.
- When director Frank Oz invited Michael Caine for a role in the film, he tempted him with a villa in the south of France, which would be at the actor’s complete disposal for the entire duration of filming. Caine agreed, discovering that this villa was conveniently located right between the villas of his friends, actor Roger Moore (1927-2017) and composer Leslie Bricusse.
- In the casino scene, Freddy, dressed in a US Army officer’s uniform, tries to wager one of his medals during a roulette game, but the dealer does not allow it. Medals in the US are made of low-grade brass, not precious metals, specifically to prevent them from being traded.
- Originally, the film was intended to star Mick Jagger and David Bowie (1947-2016) in the lead roles. Studio executives wanted to reunite them on screen after the success of the 1985 music video for “Dancing in the Street.” Following the success of the 1986 comedy “Ruthless People” (Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker), they turned to screenwriter Dale Launer for ideas. Jagger had previously written a song for “Ruthless People.” Launer suggested a remake of Ralph Levy’s 1964 comedy “A Hard Day’s Night,” which he had once seen on television. He even bought the remake rights from one of the original screenplay’s authors, Stanley Shapiro (1925-1990). Soon, Jagger and Bowie left the project, and Martin and Caine were invited to take their place.
- During filming, Keanu was 55 and Martin was 42, while director Frank Oz needed them to both appear to be roughly the same age – 45-50 years old.
- In the opening credits of the film, after the main actors, the word "are" appeared instead of "In" (in…), which can be translated as "Steve Martin and Michael Caine are outright swindlers."
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
