Screen greats Marlon Brando (The Night of the Following Day), David Niven (Separate Tables) and Shirley Jones (Elmer Gantry) star in Bedtime Story, the classic comedy caper about two cunning conmen on the French Riviera. The caddish Freddy Benson (Brando) enjoys setting up elaborate ruses to seduce women. The suave Lawrence Jameson (Niven) likes to pose as a prince to swindle the wealthy. When the two men meet, each perceives the other as an interloper and a threat. Upon the arrival of vacationing soap heiress Janet Walker (Jones), the two sweet-talking scoundrels compete to trick her out of both her clothes and her fortune. Written by Stanley Shapiro (Pillow Talk) and Paul Henning (Lover Come Back), directed by Ralph Levy (Do Not Disturb), and later remade as 1988’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Bedtime Story is the funniest story ever put between covers!
For thoughts on Bedtime Story, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic here.
Video Quality
Kino Classics presents Bedtime Story with a beautiful new 1080p master transfer in 1.85:1 sourced from a 2K remaster conducted by Universal Pictures. The film features some splendid colors within the costumes and production design that pop off the screen with a great vibrancy. The film is practically pristine with no noticeable instances of damage or dirt detected here. The level of minute detail and clarity is stunning with a lovely amount of natural film grain intact. The black levels are incredibly deep with a pleasing stability throughout. Compression artifacts, banding and other such issues do not pop up as an issue in this transfer. This presentation is another instance of Kino Classics showing off their impressive skills.
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray comes with a stellar DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that serves this film really well. The first thing you will notice is the vibrancy and clarity of the Hans J. Salter score. Despite the strength of this element, nothing ever overpowers the dialogue or other important information. Dialogue and background noises are represented in perfect harmony with all competing elements. This track shows no discernible age related wear and tear such as hissing or popping. All of the sound effects and music appear to be faithful to the intent of the creative team. There are also optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film. You could not ask for better from Kino Classics.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary: Film Historians Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson deliver a lively and informative commentary track in which they discuss the way in the story criticizes romantic comedies of the past, the fairytale elements of the story, how it compares to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the beautiful European locales and cinematography, how this fits into the careers of the performers and much more that enrich the experience.
- Trailers: This disc offers a Trailer #1 (1:37), Trailer #2 (2:23) and Teaser (0:38) for Bedtime Story. There are also trailers provided for The Brass Bottle, Come September, Never Steal Anything Small and What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?
Final Thoughts
Bedtime Story has been replaced as the preferred version of this tale since its release, but it remains a delightful bit of screwy comedy thanks to the cutting humor of the script. Marlon Brando is not the first name that pops into your head for this type of comedy, but he inhabits the role quite well opposite of David Niven. It would have been nice if Shirley Jones had more to do, but she makes an impression while she is on screen. Kino Classics has released a Blu-Ray featuring a great A/V presentation and an informative new commentary track. This film has been missing in action on home entertainment for a while, so it is nice to be able to gain access to such a strong version of it. Recommended
Bedtime Story is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Kino Classics has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
