¡Three Amigos! (1986)

Three actors accept an invitation to a Mexican village to perform their onscreen bandit fighter roles, unaware that it is the real thing.

Director:

John Landis

Writers:

Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels

Stars:

Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Martin Short

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Steve Martin	...	Lucky Day
Chevy Chase	...	Dusty Bottoms
Martin Short	...	Ned Nederlander
Alfonso Arau	...	El Guapo
Tony Plana	...	Jefe
Patrice Martinez	...	Carmen
Jorge Cervera Jr.	...	Bandito #1 (as Jorge Cervera)
Kai Wulff	...	German
Abel Franco	...	Papa Sanchez
Fred Asparagus	...	Bartender
Jon Lovitz	...	Morty
Joe Mantegna	...	Harry Flugleman
Philip Gordon	...	Rodrigo
Michael Wren	...	Cowboy
Gene Hartline	...	Silent Movie Bandito

Storyline

Three out of work silent movie actors are accidentally drawn to a Mexican village that is being harassed by a gang of outlaws. The three, 'Ned', 'Lucky Day' and 'Dusty Bottoms' play 'Lone Ranger' types in their movies, but must play their parts for real now.

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Plot Keywords:

child with a gun | two gun holster | gun holster | holster | double gun holster | 

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Taglines:

They're Down On Their Luck And Up To Their Necks In Senoritas, Margaritas, Banditos And Bullets!

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Genres:

Comedy | Western

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish German

Release Date:

12 December 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Three Caballeros

Filming Locations:

Florence, Arizona, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$39,246,734

Company Credits

Production Co:

L.A. Films,Home Box Office (HBO)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie's opening title card states: "Mexico 1916".

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Goofs

In his retelling of a story of meeting Dorothy Gish, Ned Nedlander relates how the actress calls him "Young Man". The film is set sometime around the 1st world war, the story quite a while before. Dorothy Gish did not turn 20 until 1918. Martin Short was 36 when the film was shot.

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Quotes

Lucky Day: Reading telegram: "Three Amigos, Hollywood, California. You are very great. 100,000 pesos. Come to Santa Poco put on show, stop. The In-famous El Guapo."
Dusty Bottoms: What does that mean, in-famous?
Ned Nederlander: Oh, Dusty. In-famous is when you're MORE than famous. This man El Guapo, he's not just famous, he's IN-famous.
Lucky Day: 100,000 pesos to perform with this El Guapo, who's probably the biggest actor to come out of Mexico!
Dusty Bottoms: Wow, in-famous? In-famous?

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Alternate Versions

In the original version of the movie and in the original home video, the scene in Harry Flugelman's office normally concludes with Flugelman shouting, "Your asses have just been streamlined! The Three Amigos are history." For some reason this is missing from the 2011 DVD release and the Blu-ray version.

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Connections

Referenced in Saturday Night Live: Robin Williams/Paul Simon (1986)

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Soundtracks

Blue Shadows
Written by Randy Newman
Performed by Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short

User Reviews

"Together, we raped the Horses and rode-off on the Women"

This is the level of humour you'll find throughout the movie.

It's an ironic twist on the Western cliché with a story based on The Magnificent Seven.

The recently out-of-work 3 Movie-Stars are unwittingly employed as bona-fide gun-slingers. They find themselves out-numbered 5:1 by the infamous ("More than Famous, He's In-Famous!"), El Guapo (Alfonso Arau) and his Banditos.

This impossible situation is soon turned around by quick thinking (Girl A:"I like the one who is not so clever". Girl B:"Which one is that?") and lots of sewing... yes, I said "sewing"!

If you listen to this movie closely, you'll pick-up on a lot of humour that would otherwise be lost.