Trivia / ¡Three Amigos!

• Cast the Runner-Up: Steve Martin was originally going to play Dusty Bottoms. He would eventually play Lucky Day.
• The Cast Showoff: Steve Martin learned the lasso tricks while working in a magic shop at Disneyland as a teenager.
• Creator Backlash: In his memoir, Life Itself, Roger Ebert recounted appearing as a guest on The Tonight Show alongside Chevy Chase who was promoting the film. During the interview, Ebert was asked what his least favorite film of the holiday season was, he replied Three Amigos. Chase said "looking forward to your next picture", but later confided with Ebert backstage that he didn't "think it's so hot, either."
• Deleted Role: Sam Kinison had a role as a cannibalistic mountain man that was filmed and later cut from the film. There was also a deleted subplot involving Fran Drescher as rival actress Miss Rene (see the next trope).
• Deleted Scene: Several deleted scenes were included in the Blu-ray release. An alternate opening featured the peaceful village of Santo Poco being rampaged upon by El Guapo and his men, prompting Carmen's search for help. Extended sequences of the Three Amigos at the studio mansion and backlot lead into another deleted subplot involving an up-and-coming rival actress at the studio, Miss Rene.
• Executive Meddling: John Landis said in an Empire magazine piece on the film that it was taken out of his hands in post-production by the studio, and heavily edited. It had its first scene cut for instance.
• Hostility on the Set: In a 2009 interview with Sam Kinison's brother Bill, Sam and Chevy Chase hated each other and that Sam was convinced that Chevy got it removed due to jealousy. Bill adds that he didn’t personally believe it though and Chevy denied the claim.
  • Chase and John Landis also didn't get along with Chase making a very poor taste joke about the recent tragedy of the Twilight Zone: The Movie that resulted in the deaths of Vic Morrow and two child actors and which Landis was in court for at the time, enraging Landis so much the two nearly came to blows.
• Missing Episode: Sam Kinison's appearance has been lost.
• Money, Dear Boy: According to Tony Plana, who played Jefe, the only reason he accepted a role in this movie was to stay in a five-star hotel during shooting.
• Production Posse: As well as two of them being SNL stars, all three of the studio staff - Harry Flugleman (Joe Mantegna) and his assistants Sam and Morty (Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz) have all been regular guest stars on The Simpsons.
• Starring a Star as a Star: Comedy stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Chevy Chase play silent film western stars Lucky Day, Ned Nederlander, and Dusty Bottoms.
• Vindicated by Cable: The film was only a modest money-earner (it opened directly against an Eddie Murphy vehicle, The Golden Child, which ended up the big hit of Christmas 1986) and received mixed reviews on release. Today it's more fondly regarded by fans of 80s comedies, thanks to plenty of repeat showings on HBO, and eventually earned a spot on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" list.
• Wag the Director: There were difficulties between the main actors and John Landis. Most famously, it included a scene where Chevy Chase refused to tell a joke because he thought it would make his character look like a "moron." Chase agreed to do the line after he threatened to give it to Martin Short instead.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Steven Spielberg considered directing the film, but chose to do E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial instead. He has said in interviews, his choices for the roles of the Three Amigos were Steve Martin for Lucky Day, Bill Murray for Dusty Bottoms, and Robin Williams for Ned Nederlander.
  • Originally, Martin's costars were Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi. Martin mentioned it in a Playboy interview published in January 1980, referring to the movie as The Three Caballeros.
  • Had Martin Short not been available, his role would have gone to Rick Moranis.
  • John Candy was considered for the role of Ned, but expressed concern about riding a horse at his weight (he later did ride a horse in two of his films, The Great Outdoors and Delirious) and was the one who recommended his SCTV co-star, Martin Short.
  • Early on, Steve Martin was considering pitching this to Disney as a live action remake of sorts of The Three Caballeros. It was originally a Working Title, after all. He eventually decided against it due to the possibility of creative conflicts.

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