An exercise in "black humor" bordering on the tasteless,
Bedtime Story
stars Marlon Brando and David Niven as a pair of womanizing confidence tricksters, operating up and down the Riviera. Pooling their talents, Brando and Niven pull off several scams, many of these requiring Brando to pose as a mental or physical defective. Their current "mark" is soap heiress Shirley Jones, who isn't quite as gullible as she seems. The film's highlights-or low points, depending on one's point of view-feature Brando pretending to be a mentally challenged man with a Napoleon complex, and a paraplegic who is "cured" by Jones' love (remember that this is the same actor who so sensitively portrayed a genuine paraplegic in
The Men
). Created by the same folks who brought you such TV favorites as
Green Acres
and
Beverly Hillbillies
,
was remade in 1988 as
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
, with Steve Martin, Michael Caine, and Glenne Headley in the roles originally filled by Brando, Niven and Jones.