¡Three Amigos!

In 1916 Hollywood, three silent-film actors who play cowboy heroes are fired when they ask for more money. A woman from a Mexican village, believing the characters they portray are real, sends them a telegram asking for help against the bandit El Guapo. The message is shortened in transit and loses its meaning, so the trio mistake the invitation for a paid appearance and travel south expecting a show. What awaits them is a village under the thumb of a real outlaw and his gang, and the actors' screen skills prove poorly suited to genuine danger. Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short play Dusty Bottoms, Lucky Day and Ned Nederlander, with Alfonso Arau as El Guapo.

John Landis directed the film, the tenth of the eighteen features he has made in chronological order, following Into the Night and preceding Amazon Women on the Moon. Steve Martin co-wrote the screenplay with Randy Newman and Lorne Michaels, and Lorne Michaels produced alongside George Folsey Jr. The credited cast numbers thirty-seven and the credited crew ninety-one. Made for a budget of twenty-five million dollars, the film took in thirty-nine million worldwide.

Audience response has been moderate: on TMDB it holds a rating of 6.3 out of ten from more than twelve hundred votes. A critics' rating of 5.2 out of ten, drawn from forty-two reviews, sits below that figure.