Two sets of identical twins are accidentally switched at birth. One pair, Phillipe and Pierre DeSisi, are aristocratic and haughty, while the other, Charles and Claude Coupé, are poor and dim-witted. On the eve of the French Revolution, both sets find themselves entangled in palace intrigue.
Acting
Wilder and Sutherland's twin dual performances are genuinely unhinged.
Writing
Absurdist dialogue that treats the Revolution like a bedroom farce.
Director
Bud Yorkin
Gene Wilder
Claude / Philippe
Donald Sutherland
Charles / Pierre
Hugh Griffith
King Louis
Jack MacGowran
Jacques
Billie Whitelaw
Queen Marie
Victor Spinetti
Duke d'Escargot
Ewa Aulin
Christina
Helen Fraser
Mimi
Rosalind Knight
Helene de Sisi
Harry Fowler
Marcel
Murray Melvin
Blind Man
Orson Welles
The Narrator
Jacques Maury
Lt. Sorel
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Wilder and Sutherland reportedly improvised extensively, with director Bud Yorkin struggling to maintain any historical coherence—which became the film's accidental charm.
Released during the peak of 1970s anti-establishment comedy, it bombed because audiences wanted their revolution satires with more bite and less banana peel.
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