Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Fudge-3 A stellar cast of British comedians and err.. Michael Cane, were brought together for this glorious romp in 1966.The last two survivors of a tontine (a who dies last wins all investment fund) and their relatives struggle with misidentified corpses and coffins in late Victorian England.Peter Cook and Dudley Moore take the lead as miscreant orphans. John Mills tries to knock the block off Ralph Richardson. Peter Sellers finest moment arrives when he uses a kitten as a blotter. The cine camera almost trips over itself when Tony Hancock turns to face us as the bumbling detective. Wilfrid Lawson shambles about as the unpaid butler. You'll have to be quick to spot many well-known faces such as John Le Mesurier, Leonard Rossiter, Cicely Courtneidge and Irene Handl. And it all ends with a horse-drawn hearse chase. I think they missed a trick with not involving the Venus de Milo in one of the coffins.Thoroughly recommended for 105 minutes of silliness. It all makes sense - honest.

mrwritela This movie has a very personal significance for me.I saw it on a double date in my senior year in high school. We all thought it screamingly funny, and so it is. (Though this was in Laguna Beach, California.) It is a crying shame that so few people have even heard about it.Not that it's perfect. Though Larry Gelbart (before his later "Tootsie" career) and then-partner Bert Shevelove had written the also hysterical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," the movie version of which had also floored us, "The Wrong Box" kind of poops out at the end, despite a few good lines ("This is Julia Finsbury, shortly to become...Julia Finsbury"). And John Barry, whose work on the Bond films is non-pareil--despite the beautiful, but in retrospect inappropriate main theme--supplied music generally too genteel--especially for the Pink-Pantherish slapstick at the end.But in high school, my first drama monologues were those of Peter Cook (who back then I slightly resembled) from "Beyond the Fringe." (Which I can still do, word for word, to this day. I didn't realize what a prick he was until I saw the BBC TV movie, "Not Only But Also.") Nevertheless, and regardless of their personal relationship, Pete and Dud were brilliant comedians. And "The Wrong Box" shows them off to the best of their comedic abilities. (As does the original "Bedazzled," of a few years later.)PLUS, you've got Peter Sellers doing one of his most bizarre eccentrics, Ralph Richardson as probably the funniest bore ever to appear in a movie, Tony Hancock at his apoplectic best, and gorgeous photography (if you can ignore the TV antennae).In all, a genuine unsung British comedic masterpiece that deserves much wider recognition.

vchimpanzee In 1800s England, a group of boys gathers in a large room as the details of a "tontine" are read. 20,000 pounds is being invested, and the last survivor of the group will inherit the entire amount.The boys group up to become men. We see the circumstances of each man's death, and with the same music played each time, we witness as that man's name is marked out in pretty much the same way. Some of the deaths are quite funny. Avis Bunnage, as Queen Victoria, does a fine job in a brief scene where she has an accident while knighting one of them.At long last, only two survivors remain, and they happen to be brothers. And Masterman is at death's door--or at least that's how it appears. Joseph, though 74, appears quite young and healthy, and he surely won't be going anywhere anytime soon. This delights the greedy John and Morris, who stand to inherit Joseph's estate when he goes.Masterman's son Michael is in medical school, and the decrepit butler Peacock hasn't been paid in seven years. The family is having to sell off all its possessions to make ends meet, and only a few items of furniture and a precious piano remain. Nevertheless, Michael is a sensible man, unlike his scheming cousins. He is, however, in love with his pretty cousin Julia. This isn't immoral; Julia is adopted.Masterman hasn't seen Joseph in years, but he wants to see this brother just one more time before he goes. Joseph, John and Morris take the train, but there is a terrible accident. John and Morris find a dead body wearing Joseph's jacket and assume it is Joseph. Joseph was in the "water closet", and somehow he doesn't encounter the others again until much later. He hitches a ride and goes into excruciating detail about a number of subjects, finally exasperating the driver into claiming he's reached his destination, so Joseph will have to find other means to get to where he is going.Joseph finally arrives at his brother's place and somehow survives numerous attempts on his life, not realizing what Masterson is doing.Meanwhile, John and Morris plan to box up the body and send it on. John handles this part. Meanwhile, another box is delivered to Masterson's address, containing a statue the intended recipient didn't want. Thanks to on-screen graphics that occasionally appear, this is revealed to be "the wrong box" of the movie's title.Morris must make sure everyone believes Joseph dies after Masterson, and of course Masterson will not likely survive much longer. All he needs is a blank death certificate with a doctor's signature. He can fill in the date so it appears Joseph died later. One physician is unscrupulous enough, and mentally incompetent enough, to do just this. Peter Sellers gives one of the movie's best performances as the bumbling Dr. Pratt, who just loves cats. When he signs the document, he picks up a cat to "seal" his signature. At least I'm guessing that's what he does. It's sort of like what a notary does today, but the cat is pressed to only one side of the paper.And what follows is absolute chaos and hilarity. I have no idea exactly what happens. It involves numerous hearses in wild chases, disruption of an actual funeral, a band concert interrupted numerous times to show respect to the deceased, Salvation Army singers preventing an attempted suicide, and so many incorrect assumptions on the part of the scheming cousins and their victims.Such brilliant writing, so many brilliant actors. Michael Caine isn't actually that funny but so many comedy teams have a straight man. That's what he is, and he does it very well. Same for Nanette Newman as Julia.Ralph Richardson and Peter Cook, of course, deliver hilarious performances. Wilfrid Lawson makes Peacock the butler so appealingly pathetic.This is one of the funniest movies ever.

blanche-2 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.