LES FRERES CORSES (1962)
aka The Corsican Brothers, I Fratelli Corsi
Article 2866 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-13-2009
Posting Date: 6-19-2009
Directed by Anton Giulio Majano
Featuring Geoffrey Horne, Gerard Barray, Nerio Bernardi
Country: France / Italy

Two Siamese twin brothers are separated and raised in different worlds when their family is massacred. They meet again many years later when one of them undertakes to kill a tyrant.

This version of the Dumas novel is in French without subtitles, and, though I’m at least a little bit familiar with the basic story and have seen the earlier version with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. the story has never really planted itself firmly in my mind. This means that I was fairly lost for most of the movie, though the fantastic element (the brothers have a psychic link in which one can feel the other’s pain) is apparent, if used only slightly. Going on feel, though, the movie seemed fairly ordinary; it’s more talk than action, and only seems to come to life at the beginning and end of the movie. To be sure, a dubbed or subtitled version would give me a better chance to judge it, but I doubt that I’d radically change my opinion if I saw one.