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The Wrong Box (1966)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Robert Louis Stevenson (suggested by a novel by) and
Lloyd Osbourne (suggested by a novel by) ...
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Lloyd Osbourne (suggested by a novel by) ...
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Release Date:
4 July 1966 (UK)
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Tagline:
Virtuous maidens...cunning cousins...dastardly deeds...bodies in barrels...and boxes and boxes of boxes!
Plot:
In Victorian England, a fortune now depends on which of two brothers outlives the other... or can be made to have seemed to do so! full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Won BAFTA Film Award.
Another 2 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
An Evening with ‘Pinewood Legends’ at Pinewood Studios
(From HeyUGuys. 13 November 2009, 6:53 AM, PST)
Rare Movie Alert! "The Wrong Box" On TCM August 29
(From CinemaRetro. 27 August 2009, 3:29 AM, PDT)
(From HeyUGuys. 13 November 2009, 6:53 AM, PST)
Rare Movie Alert! "The Wrong Box" On TCM August 29
(From CinemaRetro. 27 August 2009, 3:29 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
And the word "whip" appears 146 times in the Bible
more (34 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Jeremy Lloyd | ... | Brian Allen Harvey | |
| James Villiers | ... | Sydney Whitcombe Sykes | |
| Graham Stark | ... | Ian Scott Fife | |
| Richard Gregory | ... | Leicester Young Fielding (as Dick Gregory) | |
| Nicholas Parsons | ... | Alan Frazer Scrope | |
| Willoughby Goddard | ... | James Whyte Wragg | |
| Valentine Dyall | ... | Oliver Pike Harmsworth | |
| Leonard Rossiter | ... | Vyvyan Alistair Montague | |
| Hamilton Dyce | ... | Derek Lloyd Peter Digby | |
| Hilton Edwards | ... | Lawyer | |
| Timothy Bateson | ... | Clerk | |
| Donald Oliver | ... | Gunner Sergeant | |
| Totti Truman Taylor | ... | Lady at Launching | |
| Jeremy Roughton | ... | Bugler | |
| Frank Singuineau | ... | Native Bearer |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
105 min
Country:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
When Ralph Richardson was offered the part of Joseph Finsbury, he was finishing work on Doctor Zhivago (1965). Richardson wrote to director Bryan Forbes from the location in Spain and asked if he could wear the same jacket he had worn as Alexander in "Zhivago". Forbes agreed, and Richardson did so.
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Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: In the aftermath of the train wreck scene, the background sounds (i.e., muttering and exclamatory crowd noises) are "looped" mercilessly, the same few seconds of "babble" are repeated at least ten or fifteen times in a few minutes.
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Quotes:
Morris Finsbury:
I was wondering - do you by any chance happen to have any - uh - death certificates?
Doctor Pratt: Do I happen to have any death certificates? What a monstrous thing, sir - what a monstrous thing to say to a member of the medical profession! Do you realize the enormity of what you have just said?
Morris Finsbury: Yes. Do you have any death certificates?
Doctor Pratt: How many do you want?
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Doctor Pratt: Do I happen to have any death certificates? What a monstrous thing, sir - what a monstrous thing to say to a member of the medical profession! Do you realize the enormity of what you have just said?
Morris Finsbury: Yes. Do you have any death certificates?
Doctor Pratt: How many do you want?
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Movie Connections:
References Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
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Soundtrack:
Light of Head
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (34 total)
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for The Wrong Box (1966)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
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| Sony/Columbia TriStar is DVD bottomless pit! | cinemaodyssey |
| Soundtrack | mic-77 |
| Rare UK TV broadcast! 3pm Saturday 19th April on C5 | ukjf |
Recommendations
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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.