10 Things to Know About 'The Corsican Brothers' (1984)

The Corsican Brothers was the final film in the 80s run of Cheech and Chong, one of the most successful comedy duos of the 80s. The film was released on July 27th, 1984.

10 Things to Know About The Corsican Brothers

10 No, this was not a money laundering scheme

Yes, it’s true, Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong wrote, directed, and starred in The Corsican Brothers and used their positions to hire every member of their immediate family for roles in The Corsican Brothers while getting everyone paid for a $10 million dollar trip to France for a couple of months, but that is not proof that Cheech and Chong stole $10 millions from Orion Pictures.

Yes, I have watched the movie and still, that does not count as proof of any illegal scheme, no matter how much it really, really seems like Cheech and Chong stole a 10 million dollar movie budget for an extended, fancy dress, family vacation. Just because that’s what it looks like while you watch the movie, it’s still not cold, hard, evidence.

9 Cheech and Chong Invade Cannes

Cheech and Chong took the opportunity of making The Corsican Brothers in real French locations as a chance to attend the Cannes Film Festival. The comedy duo held court throughout Cannes and appeared to have a great time chatting with journalists and generally stealing headlines just for being at the festival.

8 Okay, But Why?

It was at Cannes while chatting with journalists that Cheech and Chong let slip that their next movie would not be a stoner comedy. Indeed, The Corsican Brothers would be more of a family adventure. Perhaps they meant to say they were working with their family on the movie, but nevertheless, film journalists jumped at the chance to report that the counter-culture icons were going straight.

7 No, Not THAT George Clinton

The “Music by GEO” credit refers to composer George S. Clinton’s company; he performed the score using a Synclavier II synthesizer. It’s not, as some have speculated, the legendary punk pioneer and leader of The Parliament Funkedelic, George Clinton.

6 Tommy Chong’s Director Credit May Have Ended Cheech and Chong in the 80s

Tommy Chong’s desire for credit as director of The Corsican Brothers created a rift with Cheech Marin that seemingly ended their partnership for many years. Marin felt that Tommy’s director’s credit gave him more credit for their work than he’d received as Chong’s equal partner in comedy.

5 Cheech Marin Loved Paris

Cheech Marin fell so in love with Paris, France that he brought himself an apartment in the high end district of Foch Avenue, among elite members of French society. But, to reiterate, there is no evidence that Cheech and Chong stole $10 million dollars from Orion Pictures.

4 The Corsican Brothers Was Supposed to be Released in 1983

The March 25th, 1983 edition of the Chicago Tribune reported that The Corsican Brothers was set for release in November of 1983. However, the film was delayed and not released until July of 1984. No reason has been given for the delay in release though speculation regarding ongoing tension between Cheech and Chong has been cited. There is also an unproven rumor that Cheech Marin was upset when Tommy Chong insisted on having Cheech Marin’s wife, Rikki’s dialogue dubbed in post.

3 History’s Most Juvenile Poster Tagline

“They Saw London, They Saw France, They Saw the Queen in Her Underpants”

This is a childhood schoolyard rhyme of indeterminate origin. The Queen is often just ‘your’ underpants or a random girl’s underpants. Thankfully, they only used the first part of the rhyme as the rest is even more juvenile, “are they red or are they pink?, I don’t know, but they sure do stink!” UGH!

2 A Trade Was Made

In 1983, Cheech and Chong appeared in the movie Yellowbeard, combining their talents and star power with that of the Monty Python crew and several other notable comic performers. It was a rare moment where Cheech and Chong worked on someone elses movie.

Many assumed it happened because Cheech and Chong were fans of the Pythons and vice-versa. That may be the case but the real reason Cheech and Chong in Yellowbeard was a favor to Orion Pictures which was funding Cheech and Chong’s The Corsican Brothers.

Orion feared Yellowbeard didn’t have strong enough appeal in America and asked Cheech and Chong to join the cast to help assure the film had more box office potential. In exchange, Orion agreed to a $10 million dollar budget for The Corsican Brothers.

Cheech Marin would later say that the experience of Yellowbeard was needed in order to give the duo a glimpse of what it was like to work for someone else and see how other people made movies.

1 Were Cheech and Chong Scared Straight?

Returning to Cheech and Chong’s visit to the Cannes Film Festival in 1983, a few bizarre things emerged from their holding court at Cannes.

First, Cheech Marin had a real problem with Robert De Niro. While speaking to reporters, Marin spotted Robert De Niro eating nearby and took the opportunity to take shots at the actor, asking a waiter to put a bag over De Niro’s head while they were eating, and poking fun at De Niro’s activism and dedication to his craft.

De Niro was bald at the time for a role and Marin told reporters

“He’s probably threatening to shave his head everyday until they stop world hunger. That, or ringworm.”

Even more notable is a quote regarding their workout regiment. According to Marin

“We workout everyday in the gym, we always have. You have to keep in shape in this business and not mess up your body. It’s easy to get into drugs and get disoriented. A lot of our friends have and they’re dead.”

This was a little more than a year after the death of John Belushi. Is this why The Corsican Brothers ended up being a PG romp rather than one more return to to Cheech and Chong's drugged up legend? Some say the PG move was a business decision to reach a wider audience, something the film failed to do, earning a meager $2 million dollars against that career hight $10 million dollar budget.