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Frank Oz, born in England as Frank Oznowicz in 1944, but raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, started out as a puppeteer (like his parents), notably on the TV series
"Muppets" (starting in 1963 until 2001),
"Sesame Street" (1969) and
"The Muppet Show" (19761981), and then became an actor, notably for
George Lucas'
The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
Oz directed the musical Little Shop Of Horrors (1986),
an adaptation of
Alan Menken's and Howard Ashman's show, in turn an adaptation of
Roger Corman's movie The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), a remake of Ralph Levy's Bedtime Story (1964), originally written Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning, is a comedy about conmen.
Lawrence is an elegant conman who pretends to be a prince
on the French Riviera and targets gullible rich women.
On a train Lawrence witnesses a small-time conman, Freddy, scamming a woman of a small amount.
Lawrence doesn't want competition in his town and asks
corrupt police official Andre to arrest Freddy and then pretends to intervene
to free him on condition that he leaves town.
However, Freddy runs into one of the women who believes that Lawrence is a prince and realizes that Lawrence is a bigger-scale conman. Freddy demands to be taught the art and Lawrence decides that Freddy can be useful.
Together, they trick a couple of rich women, but Freddy leaves when Lawrence refuses to give him a cut, claiming that Freddy is being paid with knowledge.
Lawrence wants Freddy to leave. Andre is ready to arrest Freddy again but Lawrence comes up with a smoother way: a bet. They will compete to extort a sum from
a woman and the loser shall leave town. Just then a clumsy young tourist walks in
front of them, Janet, whom they assume is the daughter of a tycoon.
Freddy captures her heart by posing as a navy veteran who is confined to a wheelchair and needs money to pay the only man who can heal him, a Swiss doctor.
Lawrence outsmarts him by pretending to be that very Swiss doctor, so that the young woman is now willing to pay him the sum to cure Freddy.
Lawrence convinces Janet that his cruel therapy is working when in fact he is
only tormenting Freddy. Janet, however, tells Lawrence that she has no money: she is not the daughter of a tycoon but a poor girl who has been trying to collect the money to pay for Freddy's cure out of pure good heart.
Lawrence informs Freddy that their bet is off, but Freddy comes up with another bet to decide who shall leave town: if Freddy sleeps with Janet, Lawrence will surrender.
One night Freddy finds unlikely allies: a group of navy sailors offer to get rid of Lawrence on his behalf. But Lawrence has military credentials and returns to outsmart Freddy again. Except that this time Freddy has to pretend that he has regained his ability to walk, i.e. that Lawrence healed him.
Lawrence has the sailors guard Freddy while he puts Janet on a plane back home
and even refuses payment for "healing" Freddy.
Alas, Janet has fallen in love and returns to the house, ready to have sex with Freddy.
We don't see what happens next in the house but Janet shows up at Lawrence's villa crying that Freddy stole her money. Lawrence is appalled and gives her his own money and again puts her on an airplane, while asking Andre to arrest Freddy.
Janet is so honest that she returns to Lawrence the bag with the money.
When Janet's plane is taking off, the police arrive and deliver Freddy, who is wearing only his underwear. Freddy reveals that Janet stole everything he has.
Then Lawrence realizes that his money is not in the bag: she left with both
Freddy's and Lawrence's money, following both. She's a better conman than either of them.
Some time later Lawrence and Freddy are about to part ways when Janet shows up leading a group of tycoons. She is pretending to be a realtor and has told her "customers" that Lawrence is an Australian real-estate tycoon. Lawrence immediately dives into the part to help her scam the tycoons.
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