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Funny and often laugh out loud hilarious story of two brothers (John Mills and Ralph Richardson), one of whom must outlive the other in order to win a Tontine started at their boys school and going to the final survivor of the class. What transpires is "The Wrong Box," a 1966 film directed by Bryan Forbes and also starring Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Wilfred Lawson, Nanette Newman (Mrs. Forbes) and Peter Sellers.

The first ten minutes or so of the movie is hilarious, as it shows the demise of the other students over the years. Regarding the surviving Finsbury brothers, one side of has Caine and his grandfather Mills, who is desperate to win, so he summons his brother to his "deathbed" in order to kill him, in one of the funniest scenes in the movie. On the other side, Cook and Moore are Richardson's nephews, who have devoted themselves to keeping their uncle alive. They needn't have bothered because he can't be killed anyway. He walks away from a train crash, but there's a mix-up, and he's believed dead. The nephews are desperate to cover this up until Mills dies. When they go to bury what they think is his body, Cook makes Moore do it rather than put his hands in the dirt, insisting "petal-soft hands are the mark of a great ornithologist."

Both Richardson, as the fact-spewing brother, and Mills, as the crazy old coot with murder in his heart, are excellent, as is the rest of the cast. Michael Caine is young and handsome here. Peter Sellers as a shady, cat-loving doctor is a riot. Wilfred Lawson, who plays Mills' butler, nearly steals the film as the elderly servant so old he practically has rigor mortis. One of the best moments is when Michael Caine sends him to the door telling him to go slowly - it already takes him ten minutes to get there, and Lawson starts to go to the door and mumbles to himself, "I'll slow it down." Too much. The pretty ingénue, Newman, had been married to director Forbes for ten years before the making of this film. She's still married to him.

Lots of fun, with a crazy finale befitting the film.

Sixties take offs of the Victorian era are usually very entertaining. All of the clichés of repression and morbidity are always very over the top and they are here. A woman falls madly in love with a man when she sees his arms, the salvation army stick their nose into everything. It is perhaps more insightful into the sixties than anything! This is by no means a master piece, frankly with such a stellar cast it is rather disappointing. The script tries too hard to be funny and the gags come too thick and fast , especially at the end, for the viewer to be able to follow, certainly it is very unlike the slower, more leisurely pace of Stevenson's book.

However it is certainly worth watching. If nothing else it contains one of my favourite lines ever 'Listen to me all you eggs'!

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote novels that studied character and its flaws: Long John Silver in "Treasure Island", Aleck Breck Stewart in "Kidnapped" and "David Balfour", James and Henry Durie in "The Master Of Ballentrae", Dr. Henry Jeckyll/Mr. Edward Hyde.... His best novels show the ambiguity of character. Yet with his interest in melodramatics he should have been a natural for writing mystery and detective stories, like his contemporaries Conan Doyle, Gilbert Chesterton, and Ernest Brahmah. They concentrated their gifts on character developments on their central story figures (Holmes and Watson, Father Brown, Max Carrados), but the basic plot development is what pulls the story along for all of them. Stevenson pulled the story plot to develop the characters instead.

Except once - "The Wrong Box". It is Stevenson's spoof on mystery and detective fiction. It was not his novel alone, but the first of three he wrote with his stepson Lloyd Osborne (to whom he told the story of "Treasure Island" before he wrote it down). Stevenson is telling the story of Masterman and Joseph Finsbury, the last two survivors of a special type of insurance form called a "tontine". It's an elaborate wager where a bunch of people put up a sum of money individually, and the last survivor gets the bulk of it. Masterman is home bound, and Joseph is a lively old bore who loves to talk and show off his preposterous knowledge of trivia (Ralph Richardson brings out the fact about the word "whip" when riding with a man holding a "whip"). Masterman (John Mills) lives with his grandson Michael (Michael Caine), and Joseph with his two greedy nephews (Morris and John - Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) and his niece Julia (Nanette Newman). Joseph does not really care about the tontine, but Masterman wants it - and is willing to speed the demise of Joseph to do it. Morris and John have to keep Joseph alive (which is not unlikely - he is in good health). Michael is not quite sure what is going on with his irascible grandfather, and Julia just knows she dislikes her two cousins Morris and John (but she really likes Michael). So the stage is set for the comedy. Along the way we meet other characters who are colorful: Dr. Pratt (Peter Sellers) - who at the drop of a hat will tell you about how he fell from medical grace to the backstreet he resides in; Peacock (Wilfred Lawson), Masterman's butler, who makes the average turtle look like it's turbocharged; the police Detective (Tony Hancock) - who can't put together a coherent idea if his life depended on it; and ...the Bournmouth Strangler (the story is from 1888, so we can guess who this character is based on).

It is a marvelous send-up on Victorian England, taking in the empire (notice the beginning when we see the demises of various members of the tontine), to the problems of railway traffic, talkative relatives, and body disposal in London in the 1880s. That the novel is not quite like the film does not matter (Michael is not a medical student but a clever barrister in the story, and John's relationship with Morris deteriorates in the story due to some money troubles), but this does not matter. It is a fun movie and well worth seeing.

John Mills and Ralph Richardson play a pair of elderly brothers in Victorian England who are the last surviving members of a tontine, a form of investment/insurance policy in which a group of people pool funds which are disbursed to the last surviving member. Each of the two brothers wants to be the last surviving member, but more than that, it's their young family members who want their hands on the tontine money. They'll go to great lengths to get at it.

Michael Caine plays Mills' grandson, sutdying to be a doctor and trying to deal with Mills' increasingly parlous finances. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore play two of Richardson's great-nephews, with Nanette Newman being a cousin to them and Caine. She lives with Richardson (who lives next door to Mills), but falls in love with Caine.

There are some funny moments, but some misses too. Peter Sellers is irritating in his two scenes as a corrupt and dissolute doctor, while Wilfrid Lawson is even worse as Mills' butler. Richardson, on the other hand, is a hoot as the old man who engages in trivial small talk that drives everybody else up a wall without his having a clue as to the effect it has.

This got off to an amazing start, and faltered in a few areas as it went along. It felt like Kind Hearts and Coronets or 1955's The Ladykillers for a bit, but I don't think it was overall as good as those. However, I did end up liking it quite a lot. There were enough moments that genuinely caught me off-guard that proved pretty funny, but I like a good farcical storyline, and I tend to like black comedy, and that's pretty much what this is. Being fond of British slapstick also helps - there's a ton of really broad comedy in here, but mixing that with posh accents and people trying to behave oh-so-proper equals funny. I liked the jokey use of intertitles, too.

In trying to explain why this is a good comedy, I've probably made it sound kind of boring. Something something talking about comedy is like swimming about horror, or whatever the saying is.

Anyway, this is worth watching, whether you're a Michael Caine completionist or not (but watching most of his movies seems like a far from bad idea? I feel like he's been in a ton more good films than bad).

I've recently bought this video not only to hear the music, which I do enjoy, but to be honest, it's the amusing shenanigans of the fortune seekers which I find so amusing. What will they think of next! Of course Michael Caine is his charming, adorable self, and his lady love, Julia, is captivating in her Victorian role of modesty personified, such a charming couple. I never thought John Mills could be so funny as he plays his role to the hilt, being very active for an ailing elderly family member. Peter Sellers' role as the absentminded Dr. Pratt would be hard to top as a performance. He certainly has a way with kittens and ink! It's the highlight of the movie, I'd say. The ending is hilarious and I'm still trying to figure it out as there's confusion galore. Altogether a very enjoyable film that you won't forget.

2 aged brothers (Richardson and Mills) are the last 2 survivors of an old school tontine and the last one to survive will inherit a fortune. Their siblings - scheming Cook and Moore on one side and innocent Caine on the other all come together in a very British black comedy.

Really lovely witty and gentle paced comedy, with Caine hilarious in his attempts to woo Newman and Peter Cook (who never could act) fun as the nasty scheming Morris.

Best bits though are from Lawson as the decrepit butler, Richardson, boring everyone rigid with his knowledge of trivia and Peter Graves in a small role as the commanding Baron.

In my considered opinion, this is one of the best British comedies of all time (and I flatter myself that I am not usually given to hyperbole). To buttress this opinion, I could mention the fact that the movie is based on (and quite faithful to) one of the most hilarious stories ever penned in the English language (by R. L. Stevenson of "Treasure Island" fame); that the story in spite of its endless comical complications never once becomes too confusing (except of course to Tony Hancock's hapless inspector); and that the story is interpreted by some of the most memorable and talented actors of two generations.

The (then) old guard is worthily represented by Ralph Richardson as the deliciously exasperating Joseph Finsbury, John Mills as the cranky and cantankerous Masterman, and especially Wilfrid Lawson's unforgettable doddering yet stalwart butler (his fellow actor Michael Caine has stated that Lawson is his favorite actor--as well as the favorite actor of every other actor who knew him).

The (then) younger generation, however, does not pale by comparison. Peter Cook's Morris Finsbury sets down a delightfully unprincipled cad (one suspects that Masterman may have resembled him in his younger days), yet we can't quite stop rooting for him, because Michael Caine and Nanette Newman strike just the right sweet and innocent tone as Michael and Julia to make us surreptitiously feel that perhaps they deserve to be cheated out of their money. Moreover, the fact that the fate of the more deserving members of the younger generation is not exactly aligned with the more deserving member of the older generation reinforces the ambiguity--so we find ourselves rooting in turn for Joseph, Morris, and John, then again for Michael, Julia, and Masterman. In this respect, the eventual denouement (which I won't give away) is pleasantly and surprisingly satisfying.

Spare some kudos also for the excellent supporting cast, from Peter Sellers' vacuously venal Doctor Pratt and Dame Cicely Courtneidge's imperious Salvation Army major to such brief but perfect walk-ons as the unflappable engine crew ("We haven't heard the last of this") or poor Hackett's lachrymose widow. This is what British acting is all about.

If, in spite of all this circumstantial evidence, however, I still have not fully conveyed the essential laugh-out-loud, tears-in-your-eyes, still-uncontrollably-snickering-in-church-twelve-hours-later (warning: do not watch this movie if you plan to attend a funeral anytime soon), then I can only say one thing:

Go watch this movie. You'll love it.

An overly silly, often too chaotic but yet still enjoyable little comedy, it is not as much a showcase for the talents of its director as his previous films were, but it is still well done, with some swift bits of editing, excellent sets and costumes, and some good camera-work. The material itself has both some delightful and funny parts, and generally it is amusing, even though it is often one of two extremes of being either too rushed or too drawn out. Ralph Richardson received a nomination from the BAFTAs for his performance, and he is certainly the best of ensemble cast, although Wilfrid Lawson deserves a mention too. Some awkward title cards disturb the film, but otherwise it is entertaining enough viewing, and even if no masterpiece, this is still a fairly good film.

A madcap cross-country chase for an inherited fortune by two elderly brothers and their many offspring ought to be funnier than this, especially with so many familiar names and faces along for the ride. Viewers with a weakness for the mugging style of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore might be entertained, but others may find themselves longing for more scenes with trivia freak Ralph Richardson, and a bigger part for Peter Sellers, seen all-too briefly as a dotty MD with a fondness for cats. Elsewhere the various routine plot complications and misunderstandings are (at best) fitfully amusing, but the presentation is rarely more than just plain silly, with coy title cards ("Disaster Ensues!") providing a labored chuckle along the way. The script was based on a Robert Louis Stevenson short story, which would explain the otherwise gratuitous Victorian setting and trappings.

There are many reasons to enjoy this film. It is a catalogue of English comic and serious actors, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore not the least among them. But this show belongs to the bit players. Wilfrid Lawson as Peacock is superb. I hope he garnered enough attention from this role to cap off his career. Bit and character players are a special breed.

The film is vaguely psychedelic. The art nouveau lettering on title cards fits in with the Haight Ashbury tone of the times. The plot is solid and humorous throughout yet it depends on the basic slapstick for its conclusion.

Well-written, well-acted, well-directed, well-conceived. A treat.

This is the kind of comedy that entertains with twists and turns in the plot. One crazy event leads to another, all caused by mix-ups, assumptions and misunderstandings. That said, it is well written and quite funny in a 1960's British way, with plenty of satire to go along with the zany happenings of the story. Michael Caine, Dudley Moore, and Peter Cook are all good, and Peter Sellers is fantastic in a small role. But ultimately the film comes down to a cleverly crafted plot that was derived from an old novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne.

The movie is clean enough to watch with your family, though the young kids will miss much of the humor, and some of the comedy comes from the fact that characters pretend to care about the deaths of older family members, when in fact they don't.

20 young boys join a tontine: their parents each deposited £1,000 into a trust and the last of them alive gets all the money. Several decades have passed and only two are left alive: Masterman and Joseph Finsbury - brothers. Masterman hatches a plan to lure Joseph to his home...and kill him. In this endeavour he is unwittingly aided by his slow, ineffectual grandson Michael. Joseph is watched over by his scheming nephews Morris and John Finsbury whose sole purpose is to ensure Joseph wins the tontine so they can get a share of the money.

This film looks very good on paper. This is due to the incredible cast: Michael Caine, John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, John Le Mesurier (of Dad's Army fame).

Yet, despite this great array of stars, especially comedy stars, it's quite dull and unfunny. The plot is pretty basic and doesn't work as a drama or a comedy. There's one or two good laughs but the humour is few and far between: it's understated to the point of non-existence. All those great comedic talents - Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock - are largely wasted.

Quite disappointing.

As one of the authors of the film, I'd like to say that neither of the Peters, Cook nor Sellers, did any ad libbing. As is usually the case with British actors, there was a great respect for, and reliance on, the written word.

For some reason, people have this tendency to praise British films to a point that is beyond what they deserve. This certainly is not a bad movie and it does have several interesting and genuinely funny scenes. But, it is not nearly as good as the reviews would indicate. There are several scenes that serve to slow down the story to the point where the movie almost stops dead in it's tracks. The romantic interludes are agonizing in their length and slowness of pace. Far too much is made of Peter Sellers role as the disgraced physician. Yes, he did a good job but, again, his scenes dragged on and were too long. The plot is a very good one and there is some excellent acting by all parties. However, at almost two hours, it is much too long. One half hour could easily have been cut from the length and the pace of the entire film would have been much better.

Little known in the United States, THE WRONG BOX is an absolute must-see for serious students of comedy. The plot revolves around a tontine, a lottery established by the well-heeled fathers of a class of English schoolboys, the proceeds to be awarded after many years to the last surviving member of the class. The story picks up at the point where only two of the classmates are still alive: the brothers Masterman and Joseph Finsbury, who rather detest one another. The plot is full of Finsburys, all of whom want one or the other to die first so they can get a piece of the loot.

Bryan Forbes's direction is first rate, visually exquisite, and even though the convoluted plot is a bit slow to get started, nicely paced. Forbes has a notable cast of experienced actors, and he gives them free reign to perform comedy as only the British can do. The climax chase comes to a head at exactly the right time and is hilarious, the more so because it is marvelously unforced. The actors involved give the impression they're delighted to be in the film, as they should be.

THE WRONG BOX is one of Michael Caine's earlier films and he performs creditably, and Peter Sellers shines in an excellent bit part. Nevertheless, my hat goes off to three other actors who give the performance of their careers: Ralph Richardson, as the quintessential pedant Joseph Finsbury, the world's most boring narcissist; Peter Cook, as Joseph's incessantly scheming nephew who wants to see his uncle die a few seconds after Masterman croaks; and most especially, Wilfrid Lawson as the wondrously torpid Peacock, Masterman's dignified but disheveled butler whose peculiar grunts and malapropisms remain fresh with every viewing of the film. I would put Lawson's performance on a par with Humphrey Bogart's in THE CAINE MUTINY or Fred MacMurray's in DOUBLE INDEMNITY -- it is truly that good.

THE WRONG BOX ranks on a par with THE LIFE OF BRIAN as one of the finest British comedies ever. Enjoy it!

Suggested by Robert Louis Stevenson's and Lloyd Osbourne's story, this outrageous comedy involves a pair of estranged, elderly brothers in Victorian England--the last two survivors of a decades old lottery--who, at different points, are thought deceased by their relatives, two of whom will go to any lengths to retrieve the boodle. Director Bryan Forbes (who also produced) wouldn't be my pick to helm a crazy-quilt British farce involving comedic misunderstandings, a carriage race in funeral buggies, and a mad scramble for money in a cemetery! Forbes had never cut loose before (and hasn't done so since), and so his expected 'gentleman-like' pacing occasionally rears its head. Still this script, penned by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove, opens with some high black comedy...and Forbes really seems to get into the general silliness of the situation. The all-star cast (including Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and Peter Sellers in a guest role as a befuddled doctor) is encouraged to play it over-the-top, and there are laughs nearly all the way through. **1/2 from ****

The quiet little black comedy "The Wrong Box" has a superb cast. Veteran British stage/cinema actors (Ralph Richardson, John Mills, Wilfred Lawson) play with rising stars (Michael Caine, just off "Alfie", and Peter Cook & Dudley Moore from the groundbreaking "Beyond the Fringe" revue). Established comic actors (Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock) give performances that carefully-polished little gems. Even the tiniest "blink and you'll miss 'em" roles are loaded with familiar character actors (Cicely Courtneidge, John Le Mesurier, Thorley Walters &c) rubbing elbows with rising talents (Jeremy Lloyd, James Villiers, Leonard Rossiter, Graham Stark) making the movie a veritable field day for spotters of British humor. The performances in the major roles are all solid. Some of the smaller parts have variable performances: Thorley Walters is delightful, Courtneidge, too overbearing). All the actors seem to realize that they must take this sort of comedy seriously -- mugging kills this sort of humor. The leads (Richardson, Mills, Cook, Moore, Caine, Lawson) are all suitably earnest. Only Nanette Newman (the director's wife) doesn't seem quite up to her part, being a better actress in modern dress; but she's quite pretty enough and she's good enough not to be utterly lost even in this ensemble of extremely talented actors.

The humor is quiet, with a Victorian hush over the proceedings, lending a (perhaps tongue in cheek) funereal respect to its theme of death with laughter. The gentle pace picks up near the end with a chase with hearses and beer wagons, and a climax that gathers all the principles in a cemetery in a satisfying conclusion.

The witty script is filled with little bits that might not register at first (such as the pulse bit, or "Can you speak a little lower" and the peculiar words "unnecessarily mutilated"). Some of the sight gags go askew, but enough of them work to make them worth while. It's not a movie for every taste. Anglophiles and those who appreciate an easy-going humor may find it work a peek. Anyone who loves Peter Sellers has to see his Pratt.

The opening sequence of The Wrong Box is laugh-out-loud hilarious. There's a group of young boys who sign a contract of inheritance. The last boy left alive will receive it, so although the youngsters may grow close, they'll also be waiting around for each other's deaths. In the subsequent montage, we see any number of ridiculous murders and accidents as the boys grow into a ripe old age. By the end of it, only John Mills and Ralph Richardson are left alive, each being very careful not to be poisoned or catch cold. John has a lowly medical student as his inheritor, Michael Caine, and Ralph (who ironically lives across the street) has a pair of bumbling nephews, comic team Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. A beautiful young ward (Nanette Newman) also lives with Ralph, and she and Michael develop crushes on each other from across the street.

This very tongue-in-cheek comedy is extremely British. If you don't like British humor, you'll be bored to tears. With constant spoofs made on the Victorian era, it's a period piece that doesn't take itself too seriously. There are silly gags, mistaken identities, wrong places at the wrong times, and an overwhelming sense of frivolity that permeates the main plot of murder. To see a very young (and still a little green) Michael Caine, or unusually funny John Mills and Ralph Richardson, check out this forgotten black comedy.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. During the train sequence, there's a crash and the camera swerves and tumbles around, and it will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

Firstly let me say that I'm a big "Pete & Dud" fan. The right film I like. I have nothing against the right film. The trouble is... This is a hum-drum affair. Yes, it's worth watching but only to see a bit of Pete & Dud if you know and love them. If you want a funny, flowing film with a good plot and lots of laughs then forget it. This film, like Mr. Spigot, hops about on one leg and doesn't entirely stand up for itself. It's farce without the funny "mistaken identity" bedroom scenes and interaction between anyone other than Pete, Dud, and a drunkard servant (well played that man), ooh... and one dippy woman. On the plus side if you like coffin-based farce (a sort of maxi-episode of 'Allo, 'Allo - the one with the coffin), then this is for you. They did marginally better with their "Hound of the Baskervilles". Dave Allen's coffin sketch was better than this. The overall impression is "in through one ear and out the other". Worth watching from a "Pete & Dud" history POV but not much else going for it as a film in its own right.

Bryan Forbes is to be commended for assembling a glittering cast in this rather plodding adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel. It centres around the fate of a £20,000 fortune - the result of a tontine between 20 families who each invested £1,000 in a lottery than would provide the entire fund for whichever of their young children survived! Over the course of time, nature takes it's course until, sixty years later, we are left with two brothers. "Masterman" (John Mills) and "Joseph" (Sir Ralph Richardson). The former is a conspiring old fellow who really cares about the cash - a feeling shared by his plotting grandson "Michael" (Michael Caine). The latter - who doesn't really care about the cash - a rather charming old buffoon with a tale to tell of just about everything, being kept going for as long as possible by his scheming nephews Peter Cook ("Morris"), Dudley Moore ("John") and charming neice Nanette Newman ("Julia"). The scene is now set for a series of lightly amusing escapades with a few cameos from (policeman) Tony Hancock, (doctor) Peter Sellers and a wonderfully paced (quite literally) effort from Wilfred Lawson as the butler "Peacock" leading to a rather farcical conclusion in a graveyard. It is certainly a great looking film, John Barry provides one of his less distinctive scores and the film really moves along quickly. It just wasn't funny. The impending jokes could be seen from space, and aside from Lawson, and Sir Ralph's nigh on perfect portrayal of the doting old "Joseph", the characters provide more for a star-studded gathering for the sake it it, rather for the cohesiveness of the (admittedly quite fun) plot. Not one of RLS's finest stories, this - it tries to ridicule the "virtues" of 19th century Britain, but this production lacks subtlety, wit to achieve that goal. It really overcooks the perceived eccentricities of the characters - especially with Messrs. Cook and Moore. There was a certain style of comedy and comedian prevailing in the UK in the 1960s - fans of which may get much more from this. As it is, though, I struggled with it.

Face spotting is the only draw of this supposed comedy. Eagle eyed British viewers will have fun putting names to faces. Cameos include Leonard Rossiter and even Sale Of The Century's Nicholas Parsons! ("From Norwich...")

The rest of this is dire and a pain to sit through despite the multi-generational awesome talent of the players. Randy Dudley Moore is fun to watch, but that's about it.