The Corsican Brothers

The Corsican Brothers (1942)

ALEXANDER DUMAS' IMMORTAL CLASSIC

Cultured Mario and outlaw Lucien, twins separated at birth, join forces to avenge their parents' death at the hands of evil Colonna. Because each feels all the same sensations experienced by the other, swordplay is difficult for them. Worse yet, raised very differently, they struggle to find common ground between their conflicting personalities. But to defeat their enemy, the two will have to overcome the obstacles and work as a team.

Date of release
1942-01-15
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (10)
Runtime
1h 51m
Genres
Adventure, Drama
Director
Gregory Ratoff

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: The Corsican Brothers
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

The Corsican Brothers is a 1941 American historical swashbuckler film directed by Gregory Ratoff and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in a dual role as the titular conjoined twins who are separated at birth and raised in entirely different circumstances. Both thirst for revenge against the man who killed their parents, both fall in love with the same woman. The story is very loosely based on the 1844 novella Les frères Corses by French writer Alexandre Dumas, père.

Production

Producer Edward Small had enjoyed success making films based on Dumas novels, such as The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1939). In November 1939 he announced he would film Dumas' Corsican Brothers. Louis Hayward, who had previously played a dual role for Small in Man in the Iron Mask (1939), was originally announced as star.

In May 1940 the film was officially put on United Artists' schedule for the following year. Production was delayed when Small had a falling out with United Artists over finances and did not make any films for them for six months. In March 1941 he announced Howard Eastbrook would write the script. Fritz Lang was rumoured to be hired as the film's director.

In April 1941 Douglas Fairbanks Jr signed to play the lead role. He later wrote in his memoirs that it had been over a year since he last made a movie "and I was much concerned that a great deal would be riding on this one I had very high hopes for the movie and was probably more sensitive to its shortcomings than I should have been."

Fairbanks said Small "though personally agreeable, had previously made inexpensive, inelegant films that fit his name a physique. He was not ready to risk an expensive, high quality film." Fairbanks said this led to the producer not paying for a high quality support cast. But he was attracted by the story and the fact "this was the first real swashbuckling hero part I ever played."

Ruth Warrick was borrowed from RKO to play the female lead.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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