Best movie of this year hands down!

Such a frustrating disappointment

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

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"!

Very funny comedy .The repetitive side ("My granny is sick...She needs an operation...Alas I've not got enough money! Poor dear") is no problem.On the contrary,it becomes funnier and funnier as the movie progresses."Bedtime story" hints at fairy tales characters ,particularly the Little Red Riding Hood and Prince Charming (David Niven may be a fake shrink ,but he is a true prince short of the readies,a prince going as far as to "create" an evil prince in his château).But the most successful gags are provided by the spoof on all the Freudian works which were thriving since the forties (their heyday with such directors as Siodmak,Hitchcock,Lang ,Tourneur ..).Brando about to faint and pretending he is suffering each time he sees lovers dance is a nod to all these movies in which the hero(ine) couldn't stand a certain thing,because in his/her past something bad happened.I even suspect the writers of having borrowed the scene in which Shirley Jones and Brando are on the beach (You can do it on my legs too)from the famous scene on the boat when Marilyn Monroe tries to arouse Tony Curtis's desire .A treat for big babies.

'Bedtime Story' is the earlier movie that 'inspired' the more recent 'Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels.' I say inspired because, although most characters are the same, and the predominant story line is the same, including many identical scenes, the two movies end quite differently. Enough so to make them different movies, instead of the latter being a remake.I enjoyed 'Bedtime Story', but I strongly prefer 'Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels', which has come to be my all-time favorite comedy. I will watch it over and over, but one viewing of 'Bedtime Story' is enough for me. I never liked Brando as an actor, his delivery of lines, which sounds to me like a speech impediment, is distracting. I only liked him in the 'Godfather' movies, where he was the perfect choice.I also thought the 'Rupreckt' sub-character was played much better by Steve Martin, who is clearly better than Brando ever could be in this type of role. Niven is perfect here, even better than Michael Caine, and I love Shirley Jones (Janet Walker, not Colgate) in anything, but they are not enough to bring this marginal comedy any higher than '7' of 10. Plus, 'Bedtime Story' was obviously filmed on a set, with filmed scenes of Germany and southern France shown in the background. In contrast, 'Scoundrels' was filmed in France, which makes it a much more authentic movie.MAJOR SPOILER FOLLOWS - In 'Bedtime Story' a telegram back to Janet exposes the hoax, but she doesn't know Freddie is involved, so marries him, with Freddie moving back to the States to work in the soap factory, while Niven's character is tracking down a new target. In 'Scoundrels', it turns out that Janet has scammed both of them, disappears, and turns up later, with a group of investors, looking for help from the boys to work this real estate scam.

If you saw Stanley Shapiro's other movies you will notice that this is a variation on the same theme. But it's still enjoyable. This movie could be considered very misogynous if it weren't so misanthropic. Unlike previous Shapiro productions, in this one, women are described as the stronger gender, but depicted as almost another species, gullible beyond belief. In previous films women were smooth operators in their own right. But the comparative paleness of one gender in this one, is probably the result of so much time being devoted to tarring and feathering the other gender. Shapiro is the master of compassionate cynicism. Niven's character is just preposterously wonderful: an urbane, slightly world-weary crook who has really "arrived" and whose exquisite taste prompts him to be a patron of the vanishing arts and crafts! Brando's is upstart, uncouth vulgarity personified. There may be geopolitical implications here. The happy ending is of course, obligatorily contrived, something out of "The Tender Trap", to satisfy the censors. This is a most delightful farce for connoisseurs. I haven't seen the remake, but can it be better than this?