“A hero who has no faults probably doesn’t have much of a personality.”
Dale Launer
Therese Walsh Interview
Before screenwriter Dale Launer hit it big with his first produced screenplay Ruthless People (1986) he wrote “about 1o screenplays of dubious quality” while paying the bills at a variety of jobs that included selling stereos, refinishing furniture, and fixing up old Porches and selling them.
After Ruthless People he had the unusual opportunity to meet with Mick Jagger and discuss the possibility of writing a script for Jagger and David Bowie.
“I had an idea that I thought would be a good vehicle for Jagger and Bowie. I remembered an old movie from the early ’60s with David Niven and Marlon Brando playing con men competing with each other. So I called her (Gail Davis at Bowie’s production company) back and told her the story: David Niven is a gigolo-con artist who works the French Riviera pretending to be a deposed prince trying to raise money for an anti-Communist freedom fighters. Rich, middle-aged American women are eager to support his cause and take him to bed.
On a train, Niven runs into Marlon Brando, an arrogant nickel-and-dimer who’s hitting on women for lunch and a few francs with a sob story about his sick grandmother. Brando begs the master con for lessons, but soon thinks he’s surpassed his teacher and starts to work Niven’s territory. To get rid of Brando, Niven agrees to a bet. They’ll find a rich woman, and the first man to extract $50,000 from her is the winner; the loser must leave town.”
Screenwriter Dale Launer
Premiere January 1989
That movie was Bedtime Stories and released in 1964. Jagger and Bowie never made the remake. But Launer got the rights and wrote the script that was an Eddie Murphy vehicle for a while before becoming a hit movie featuring Steve Martin and Michael Caine.
Launer followed the success of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with the hit My Cousin Vinny, for which Marisa Tomei won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. And I believe Love Potion No. 9 (1992), which Launer wrote and directed, was Sandra Bullock’s first starring role in a feature. A few years ago he sold the spec script Bad Dog to DreamWorks for $3 million, but it has not been produced.
Original credited writers of Bedtime Stories were Paul Henning (1911-2005) who worked as a producer of hundreds of TV shows including Green Acres, The Beverely Hillbillies, and Petticoat Junction, along with Stanley Shapiro who won an Oscar for the 1959 Doris Day/Rock Hudson film Pillow Talk.
And in case you wondered if a remake of the remake is due since it’s been more than 20 years since the release of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels—a couple years ago there was talk of a female version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels being in the works. (And a musical version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels had a 626 performance run on Broadway a couple of years ago.)
Lauder has a website (www.dalelauner.com) with various articles about writing and digital filmmaking.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a fun film and is a nice bookend to The Sting for you to view if you’re writing a script about con-men or con-women. Here’s the trailer from the film which Roger Ebert reviewed as, “Caine goes the high road, with visual and verbal humor. Martin does more pratfalls than in any of his movies since “The Jerk,” and he has one absolutely inspired scene in a jail cell.”
Screenwriting from Iowa 
[…] “A hero who has no faults probably doesn’t have much of a personality.” Dale Launer Therese Walsh Interview Before screenwriter Dale Launer hit it big with his first produced screenplay Ruthless People (1986) he wrote “about 1o screenplays of dubious quality” while paying the bills at a variety of jobs that included selling stereos, refinishing furniture, […] Original Source… […]
(I don’t want to be identified at all, please)
Last night in central Mexico, on a Mexican cable television, I flipped past a channel that says “CineMexicano” on the top left corner of the TV screen. It caught my eye for a moment b/c the Mexican actor was seated in a wheelchair and had an odd expression on his face. After watching a few moments, I was astounded to see an exchange between him and an attractive woman in what was like a nightgown or bathrobe. It was not sheer. It became very clear that he was claiming to not be able to walk but perhaps with some incentive from her he could maybe get out of the wheelchair. Over the next couple of minutes she agrees and he can’t seem to make any progress, but then she untied her robe and she showed herself nude (full frontal nudity). He then makes more of a fake effort and gets up out of the chair but rather awkwardly. She eventually disrobes completely and he makes his way over to her and gives her a huge hug. He then takes off his shirt and throws it off and hugs her again. The camera then panned back and in the doorway was a well-dressed man in a 3 piece suit who then enters the room and the fraud of the wheelchair man is fully disclosed and it is announced that the woman had been in on it. The facial expressions on the charlatan wheelchair man were basically EXACTLY like those of Steve Martin in this film as were the faltering/faked steps and even the acceleration of the steps as he approaches the woman. I was astounded to recognize this scene from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Steve Martin’s character was a perfect match for this old Mexican film. I couldn’t find a listing that matched what this film was called and still have no idea. It obviously was from the 1960s. I’ve never seen Bedtime Story and perhaps the Mexican film was copying that Hollywood film? I don’t know but it was a shocking similarity. I was half-expecting to see some reference to a Mexican film in the writing of the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels script but it appears there is no acknowledgement. I’m very sorry I don’t have a Spanish film title or even actor names. I wasn’t really watching that film and I was a little shocked to see the actress disrobed. I don’t normally watch films with nudity but this one because of my fondness for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels kept me mesmerized at the exact likeness of Martin’s character from the facial expressions to the walk. I definitely felt that Martin must have seen this Mexican film scene OR now, I have to wonder if Bedtime Story was the template for Martin’s performance or not. If you’ll post my comment (so I know you’ve seen it and taken it seriously), I’m still working on searching for this Mexican film and it’s credits, title, etc.
after more research, it may have been Argentinian. i believe it was in color. could have dated it to the very early 70s as well.