Ruprecht the Monkey Boy is one of my favorite movie characters of the 1980s. Recognize him? Ruprecht is one of the several people imagined by Freddy Benson (Steve Martin) in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, perhaps the funniest comedy of 1988. That movie is a remake of 1964’s Bedtime Story (which I have never seen), and is now being remade in a distaff version as The Hustle, with Rebel Wilson taking Martin’s brash con-person role, while Anne Hathaway is the more polished criminal (Michael Caine’s role in DRS).

Chris Addison’s film follows the DRS story pretty closely, which allows for meaningful comparison. The big question is whether two women can be as funny as two men were. The answer for me is no. Rebel Wilson is amusing, but Steve Martin was hilarious. Anne Hathaway is stunning and clever, but her British accent is never quite convincing (and perhaps is not intended to be!), but Michael Caine was funnier. Some of the role reversal material works really well, and some of it falls flat. And perhaps its impact is lessened by the fact that I have seen it all before.

The cons are amusing but the real meat of this comedy is watching Penny (Wilson) be trained by Josephine (Hathaway) and gradually persuade her that the effort is worthwhile. As a bet they each try to scam website developer Thomas (Alex Sharp) out of his fortune, and I must admit that the drama that grows from their crazy efforts is affecting, even as I knew what was going to be revealed. Then the climax reinforces the conclusion of DRS and actually expands it a little bit.

If you haven’t seen Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, by all means do! The Hustle is an intriguing remake of that fine comedy, and of Bedtime Story, which starred the unlikely trio of Marlon Brando, David Niven and Shirley Jones. I’m going to have to see that one, too, just to experience what started all of this fuss — although I can’t imagine either Brando or Niven as Ruprecht the Monkey Boy. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2. The Hustle: ☆ ☆ 1/2. 23 July 2019.