The Wrong Box (1966)
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88% of critics liked it
(17 reviews) -
72% of users liked it
(661 ratings)
Years before the story proper in The Wrong Box gets under way, a "tontine" is drawn up on behalf several young British boys. Each of the boys' parents had placed 1000 pounds in a pool, to be invested and expanded upon. The resultant fortune will go to the last surving member of the… More Years before the story proper in The Wrong Box gets under way, a "tontine" is drawn up on behalf several young British boys. Each of the boys' parents had placed 1000 pounds in a pool, to be invested and expanded upon. The resultant fortune will go to the last surving member of the tontine. A series of montages depicts the various demises of the heirs (our favorite occurs when one of them is inadvertently beheaded while being knighted by Queen Victoria). Finally, only two of the tontine participants are left: aged brothers Ralph Richardson and John Mills. On his last legs, Mills is determined that Richardson will not outlive him, and to that end attempts to kill his brother; each attempt fails spectacularly, with the doddering Richardson none the wiser. Standing to benefit from the tontine are Mills' dimwitted med-student son Michael Caine and Richardson's greedy nephews Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. When Richardson is supposedly killed in a train wreck, Cook and Moore don't want the authorities to find out, so they appropriate what they think is their uncle's corpse and ship it home in a box. Thus it is that Caine finds the body of a perfect stranger on his doorstep. The farcical complications begin flying about thick and fast from this point onward. Among the participants in this wacky gigglefest are such formidable talents as Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Wilfred Lawson, Thorley Walters, Norman Rossington, Irene Handl and Cicely Courtenedge. Based on a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Wrong Box is a delightful harkback to the glory days of Britain's Ealing comedies. We were so wrapped up in the story that we didn't even notice all those TV antennae sprouting up on the rooftops of Victorian London. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Bryan Forbes
- Genres
- Comedy
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Jul 4, 1966 Wide
- Studio
- Columbia Pictures Corporation
Critic Reviews
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, TIME Magazine
Some of the gags crumble on impact, others are stretched out like taffy, but there is enough fun left over to leave most moviegoers happily wallowing in greed, sex, homicide, body snatching and other nefarious diversions.
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Variety Staff, Variety
Mills amusingly hams his way through two or three sequences as one of the dying brothers. Richardson, bland, imperturable old bore, is superb. He and Wilfrid Lawson, portraying a decrepit butler, virtually carry away the acting honors.
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Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Some sections and bits are funnier than others. Some are labored and dull. It is that sort of story, that sort of comedy. But it adds up to a lively lark.
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Robert Roten, Laramie Movie Scope
It is a farce with a lot of class and style, carried off with some brilliant acting. It also has what most films with idiot plots lack, restraint, subtlety and sly wit.
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, TV Guide's Movie Guide
All of the smaller roles are deliciously cast, with several of the best comic actors England had to offer in that decade, a heyday of British humor.
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Cast
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John Mills
as Masterman Finsbury
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Ralph Richardson
as Joseph Finsbury
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Michael Caine
as Michael Finsbury
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Peter Cook
as Morris Finsbury
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Dudley Moore
as John Finsbury
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Nanette Newman
as Julia Finsbury
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Peter Sellers
as Dr. Pratt
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Tony Hancock
as Detective
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Wilfred Lawson
as Peacock
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Thorley Walters
as Lawyer Patience
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Dame Cicely Courtneidge
as Maj. Martha
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Irene Handl
as Mrs. Hackett
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Gerald Sim
as 1st Undertaker
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John Le Mesurier
as Dr. Slattery
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Norman Bird
as Clergyman
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Tutte Lemkow
as Bournemouth Strangler
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Vanda Godsell
as Mrs. Goodge
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Peter Graves
as Military Officer on Train
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Norman Rossington
as 1st Rough
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Nicholas Parsons
as Alan Fraser Scrope
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Avis Bunnage
as Queen Victoria
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Timothy Bateson
as Clerk
- Penny Brahms
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Diane Clare
as Mercy
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Valentine Dyall
as Oliver Pike Harmsworth
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Hamilton Dyce
as Derek Lloyd Peter Digby
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Hilton Edwards
as Lawyer
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Lionel Gamlin
as 2nd Engine Driver
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Dick Gregory
as Leicester Young Fielding
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Maria Kazan
as Twittering Female on Moors
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Michael Scott Lees
as Young Digby
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Reg Lye
as 3rd Undertaker
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André Morell
as Club Butler
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Leonard Rossiter
as Vyvyan Alastair Montague
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Frank Singuineau
as Native Bearer
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Graham Stark
as Ian Scott Fife
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Marianne Stone
as Spinster on Train
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Donald Tandy
as Ticket Collector
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Totti Truman Taylor
as Lady at Launching
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James Villiers
as Sydney Whitcombe Sykes
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Gwendolyn Watts
as Maid
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John Junkin
as 1st Engine Driver
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Jeremy Lloyd
as Brian Allen Harvey
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Willoughby Goddard
as James White Wragg
- John Fitch
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Denis Cowles
as Sotheby's Partner
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Thomas Gallagher
as 2nd Rough
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George Selway
as Railway Vanman
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Tony Thawnton
as 2nd Undertaker
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Joseph Behrman
as Vanman's Mate
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Charlie Bird
as Bonn's Vanman
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Michael Bird
as Countryman
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George Spence
as Workman in Road
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Terry Martin
as 2nd Stoker
- John Morris
- John Parker
