Friday, October 03, 2014

Dirty, Rotten, Scoundrels

One of my favorite movies is "Dirty, Rotten, Scoundrels."  I found it slap stick funny in the 8th grade, but find it a brilliant work of art in my adulthood.

Naturally, out of all of Italy, I wanted to visit where the fictional "Beaumont Sur Mer" existed, but came to find out it was indeed fictional.  There is no such place as Beaumont Sur Mer."  However, there were real towns and general areas referenced in the movie that do indeed exist, one of which is "Portovino."  And thusly, I decided to visit this town in the hopes of seeing where the infamous Freddy Benson, aka, "Randy Bentwick" walked.

Naturally, the results were very Cappy.  Prosecco is quickly becoming the replacement for Rumpleminze, swimming in the Mediterranean was more pleasant than expected, saw a Ferrari convoy come through town, and more or less felt like a poser in what has the claim to fame as being the "richest" part of all of Italy.  Of course, Freddy Benson was a poser, so I find it merely fitting I was the low brow lower-middle income American middling in their midst.



10 comments:

  1. Marshallaw5:09 PM

    Ruprecht.......

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  2. Anonymous5:14 AM

    Loved this movie also. Found out last year that this movie was based on the Marlon Brando/David Niven classic "Bedtime Story" (1964)

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  3. Who is taking all these wonderful pictures?

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  4. Vroooooom!8:24 AM

    The "Ferrari convoy" (in 1st picture?) looks more like a convoy of Fiat 850 spyders!

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  5. Anonymous2:52 PM

    If you get a chance, visit Turin, Italy, the home of the famous "Shroud of Turin."

    From my experience back in the late seventies when I was there, the people were very friendly.

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  6. Anonymous3:46 PM

    Italy is wonderful, if you can avoid the mafia.

    They have the 'work - life' balance just about right, the food is pretty good ( there is better ) and I can't fault their women.

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  7. Anonymous11:09 AM

    The first two cars in the procession of sports cars are Fiats: an 850 Spider Bertone and a 124 Sport Spider Pininfarina.

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  8. Glad you are enjoying yourself. Listened to your last podcast and it didn't seem like there was much hope there.

    After the Magnum PI Ferrari (308GTSI)my favorite would have to be the 250GT.

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  9. The movie was actually shot in France, and it was filmed in and around Villefranche-sur-Mer, which is a little bit east of Nice. I spent a couple of days there not long after the movie came out, and found it interesting walking around some of the same places those scenes were filmed.

    Ronin also has some scenes from the waterfront in Villefranche.

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  10. "Bedtime Story" is a wonderful movie, with Shirley Jones as the woman they go after. It's apparently never been made available on DVD, but it is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziCah0n6ZEo

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