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, Bedtime Story 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. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide