The Corsican Brothers

Based on the famous Alexander Dumas novel of the same name, Siamese twins, Mario and Lucian Franzi are separated at birth by surgery and adopted by different parents. Lucian is raised in Corsica as a bandit, while Mario grows up in Paris as a suave gallant, but Lucian has a special psychic ability to feel his brother's feelings, though he is not even aware of his existence. At age 21, they are reunited in Corsica by their foster-parents and are informed that their parents were murdered by Count Colorra who has become the ruler of Corsica by killing off all his enemies through vendettas. In typical Sicilian fashion, the bandit brothers swear vengeance and start their campaign by attacking Colorra's interests. Mario becomes romantically involved with Countess Isabelle Gravini who is under pressure from Colorra to marry him and saves her from Colorra's clutches. Lucian who also falls in love with Isabelle,becomes jealous of his brother and abandons him when Colorra captures Mario. How Lucian escapes and gets his girl constitutes the final part of the movie.

The highlight of this movie is Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, who stars in the title roles with great gusto and suavity. He is great in roles in like this, much better than his father was. However, to swashbuckling buffs, the swordfights in this film are, perhaps, only of middling quality. While Fairbanks carries the film on his broad shoulders, his co-star Ruth Warrick is not impressive. And Basil Rathbone would have been a great choice to play the villain Colorra rather than Akim Tamiroff who comes across more as a buffoon than as a sinister Sicilian cutthroat.

In summary, "The Corsican Brothers" is a pleasant, highly watchable movie, with just the right amount of violence to make it exciting. However, the director Gregory Ratoff should have portrayed the unsavory institution of vendetta which blighted so many families in the isle of Sicily, in a less approving light.

Reviewed by Sundar Narayan

Vendetta, the vicious tribal feuding which ravages the great families of Corsica. The Baron Calonne has ended the Franzi dynasty and made himself supreme.

Or so he thinks..... unbeknownst to him, infant twin sons of the noble line of Franzi did not perish in the inferno he visited on their family. One, was taken to Paris and raised as an aristocrat, the other lived in the Corsican woods as a bandit.

What might have been a predictable revenge saga is given an enterprising twist by the device of making the twins Siamese at birth. Surgically separated as their family is massacred and their home destroyed, they are parted and raised along different paths. Mario grows up to be a cultured and wealthy Parisian, Lucien however is raised in the Corsican woods by outlaws, and it is Lucien who retains a "sixth sense" link with his twin. He feels the pain of his brother and also the pleasure. When Mario fell in love with and fought a duel for a beautiful Countess, Lucien was present in spirit.

The paths of the brothers reconverge at their 21st birthday where they are reunited by the doctor who saved them and told of their destiny.......

Douglas Fairbanks Jr is excellent in the roles of Lucien and Mario. The special effects are limited to crude superimpositions and backprojections but he overcomes their lack of effect by the simple expedient of acting. Lucien is shorter, darker and cunning. Mario is tall, suave and clever. The countess who plays their love interest and who will eventually come between them is not so impressive. A soft focus stereotype in silly skirts simpering through the forest like an umbrella on legs.

The scene is completed by the villain, the evil Baron. What a character ! Short, greasy, and swarthy, complete with twirly moustache he is a worthy adversary for the heroic twins. If trains had been invented, the countess would surely have ended her days tied to some tracks.

The swordplay is frantic, buckles are swashed, the plot is satisfying and Fairbanks is a star twice over. If you can overlook the (awful) technical shortcomings and you like your heroes handsome but flawed and your baddies to twirl their moustaches and get their come-uppances, watch the Corsican Brothers.

It was hard for me to believe this film was made in 1941 because it deals with the operation of Siamese Twins and a doctor named Enrico Paoli, (H.B.Warner) who is able to perform surgery and separate these twin boys and give them a life. However, Dr. Enrico worries about the soul of these twins and hopes that one is not without one. There are times in this film when I think I am seeing a Boris Karloff film with all kinds of experiments bringing people back from the dead and mixing all kinds of steamy chemicals glowing in the dark. The star of this picture is Douglas Fairbanks Jr., (Lucien Franchi/Mario Franchi) who stars in both roles as the twin boys and gives an outstanding performance. Akim Tamrioff, (Colona) plays a ruthless person who controls Corsica where this film takes place and is responsible for the deaths of Lucien and Mario father and mother. This is a film which is way ahead of its time and is very entertaining with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., doing all the sword swinging like his father years ago. Great Film.

Alexander Dumas liked stories about separated twins so this time we find it is brothers "Mario" and "Lucien" (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) who are born conjoined. The doctor manages to separate them but before they can do much more, violence at the hands of the cunning "Baron Colonna" (Akim Tamiroff) robs them of their parents and the boys are split up. "Mario" ends up being well brought up and used to the finer things in life whilst "Lucien" becomes a highwayman but both have a sensation that they are not alone! When they do finally meet, they begin to understand just how connected their spirits actually are and how easily they can feel each other's pain - and they both determine to avenge their murdered parents. As a team they are chalk and cheese, and so must learn to trust each other - and that's not made any easier as both of them fall for the "Countess Isabelle" (Ruth Warrick) who is also the object of the desires of their scheming nemesis. With love triangles all over the places and a solid dose of familial vengeance here, too, this is an ideal vehicle for Fairbanks to shine. Somehow, though, he just doesn't. The photography that puts them both in the same shot regularly is natural but his reconciliation of the two differing characters doesn't quite come off. Even at it's most swashbuckling, there's just a paucity of flare. Not for the first time in his career, it's really Tamiroff who steals the show with an effort that could easily have inspired the nasty from the "Zorro" adventures from the late 1950s. The production looks great though and when there is action, it mixes the swordplay with a little humour and delivers a perfectly watchable adventure film that though it does disappoint, that's maybe just because I had higher expectations of this actor in his element. It's still worth watching.

The Corsican Brothers" is a 1941 black and white adventure films from the Alexander Dumas novel (1844) of the same name. It was the 8th adaptation of the book to film, and would continue to be adapted including "Cheech and Chong's The Corsican Brothers" (1984) and "Start the Revolution without Me" (1970). This is probably the best of the serious adaptations, but that's not saying much. The acting, photography, and music are all very ordinary, with nothing noteworthy to remark on. The special effects (using Fairbanks as his own brother) are relatively poor, even given the date of the film.

If you like films about France in the pre-industrial age, my favorites are Marat/Sade (1967), Napoleon (1927), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) and The Three Musketeers (1921, 1935).