The Corsican Brothers is a 1941 adventure film directed by Gregory Ratoff. The film stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Ruth Warrick, and Akim Tamiroff. The Corsican Brothers is based on Alexander Dumas’ 1844 novella of the same name.
Director: Gregory Ratoff
Production Company: Edward Small Productions
Distributor: United Artists
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Ruth Warrick, Akim Tamiroff, J. Carrol Naish, H.B. Warner, John Emery, Henry Wilcoxon
US Box Office: $3,250,000 ($124,000,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Black & White
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: November 28, 1941
Plot Summary: In 19th century Corsica, Count Victor Franchi (Henry Wilcoxon) and most of his family are murdered by the ruthless Baron Colonna (Akim Tamiroff). Victor’s newborn conjoined twin sons Mario and Lucien are saved from execution by Dr. Enrico Pauli (H.B. Warner) who separates the two to protect them. Mario (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is raised by the aristocratic Dupre family in Paris, while Lucien (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is raised as a bandit in Corsica by Lorenzo (J. Carrol Naish), Victor’s former advisor. Twenty years later, Mario and Lucien are reunited and they vow to take revenge on Colonna. However, the relationship between the two becomes strained when Lucien becomes interested in Countess Isabelle Gravini (Ruth Warrick), the woman Mario loves.
Production: In November of 1939, producer Edward Small publicly announced that he would be working on a film adaptation of Alexander Dumas’ 1844 novella The Corsican Brothers. Small had previously produced The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), which were successful film adaptions of Dumas novels. In May of 1940 United Artists put The Corsican Brothers on its schedule for the following year, but the project was delayed in June. Small got into a dispute with United Artists over finances, and refused to make any films for them until a new contract was signed. By January of 1941 Small had worked out his differences with the studio and finally began work on The Corsican Brothers. Small hired George Bruce and Howard Estabrook to write the script loosely based on Dumas’ story. Small originally wanted German director Fritz Lang to direct The Corsican Brothers, but Lang was under contract with 20th Century Fox at the time, who refused to loan him. In June, Small hired Gregory Ratoff to direct the film. Ratoff mainly directed dramas and comedies but had recently directed the adventure film Barricade (1939).
In April of 1941 Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was cast in the lead roles of The Corsican Brothers, as twins Mario and Lucien Franchi. Fairbanks was the son of iconic silent film star Douglas Fairbanks, who had died in 1939. Fairbanks Jr. had starred in number of different films, and recently had major roles in adventure films Gunga Din (1939) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), though he was not the leading man. Small had previously considered Louis Hayward, who had played two characters in Small’s The Man in the Iron Mask for the parts of Mario and Lucien. Ruth Warrick was cast as Isabelle Gravini. Warrick made her film debut in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane earlier that year. Although it received little attention from audiences at the time, Citizen Kane has since received massive critical acclaim, and many consider it to be one of the greatest films of all time. Armenian-American actor Akim Tamiroff was cast as Colonna, the film’s main villain. Fairbanks Jr. praised Tamiroff’s acting ability but privately thought that he was miscast in the part, being too short and too fat to be an intimidating villain.
Small and Ratoff began shooting The Corsican Brothers in July of 1941. Filming went until September of that year. Despite containing many forest and wilderness scenes, The Corsican Brothers was shot almost entirely on set. During filming, Fairbanks was privately concerned about Small’s cost-cutting measures, but was interested in the film’s story and was happy that he finally got the chance to play the sort of “swashbuckling hero” role that his father frequently played. Ratoff used double exposure and other film editing techniques to create the shots where Mario and Lucien interact with each other. Additionally, some medium shots of the two characters together feature Fairbanks next to a body double wearing a high quality mask of Fairbank’s face.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and J. Carrol Naish had previously appeared together in It’s Tough to Be Famous (1932) and Captured! (1933). Gregory Ratoff previously directed Akim Tamiroff in Professional Sweetheart (1933) and The Great Flirtation (1934), and later directed him in Black Magic (1945), which was also produced by Edward Small. Fairbanks was commissioned as a reserve officer in the United States Navy when the US entered World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Corsican Brothers was his last film for more than five years, until he returned to the silver screen in Sinbad the Sailor (1947), which co-starred Maureen O’Hara.
Reception: The Corsican Brothers was released on November 28, 1941. The film was a success at the box office. During production Fairbanks was embarrassed by the film’s shortcomings, but after release he was proud of how The Corsican Brothers turned out, and praised it for paying tribute to his late father’s career as a swashbuckling adventure hero. According to Ruth Warrick, The Corsican Brothers held a record for the number of times it was shown on television by the early 1980s.
The Corsican Brothers received mixed reviews from critics when it was first released. Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times gave The Corsican Brothers a positive review and praised Fairbanks Jr. for continuing the legacy of his father. The film critics at The Times of India also praised the film. Theodore Strauss of The New York Times gave the film a negative review. He complained that the script was too “overstuffed” and he didn’t care for the acting. The film critics at Variety thought that the script had potential, but was too bogged down by the dialogue and character motivations to be effective. John Mosher of The New Yorker similarly criticized The Corsican Brothers for being too long and not being exciting enough.
Although The Corsican Brothers has been largely forgotten by audiences in the twenty-first century, modern film critics are kinder to the film than the 1940s film critics were. In a positive review, Dennis Schwartz praised The Corsican Brothers for its action sequences, but criticized the film’s dialogue. Sean Axmaker praised Douglas Fairbanks Jr.’s performances as Mario and Lucien, and the special effects used to allow the twins to interact with each other on screen.
Oscars: The Corsican Brothers was nominated for one Academy Award: Best Score for a Dramatic or Comedy film (Dimitri Tiomkin). Tiomkin lost the Oscar to Max Steiner who was nominated for Now Voyager (1942). Despite being released in late 1941, The Corsican Brothers received its Oscar nomination at the 15th Academy Awards ceremony (for 1942 films) rather than at the 14th Academy Awards ceremony (for 1941 films).
Why You Should See It: The Corsican Brothers is a good adventure film. The film features lots of exciting action and swashbuckling fun. Director Gregory Ratoff did a good job of successfully combining a few really strong dramatic moments with the otherwise generally “fun” and adventurous tone of the film. Fairbanks gives a mostly effective performance as Mario and Lucien. Having to play multiple characters in a film can be difficult, but Fairbanks makes the characters’ personalities different enough to be believable as twin brothers.