The Wrong Box (1966)

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!

Director:

Bryan Forbes

Writers:

Robert Louis Stevenson (suggested by a novel by), Lloyd Osbourne (suggested by a novel by),

Stars:

Jeremy Lloyd, John Mills, Michael Caine

Won 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeremy Lloyd	...	Brian Allen Harvey
James Villiers	...	Sydney Whitcombe Sykes
Graham Stark	...	Ian Scott Fife
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
Michael Lees	...	Young Digby

Storyline

A tontine is established for a dozen children, a tontine being a kind of bet/insurance, money is put in for each to grow with interest and the last survivor is to get the lot. We watch the group dwindle until only two brothers are left. One brother is watched by his nephews who will keep him alive at all costs, the other lives in ill health and poverty as the only support of his fairly stupid grandson. Statues and bodies are switched, in the wrong boxes until everyone is sure someone has died. Now if they can only make it seem as if the other brother died first, hundreds of thousands of pounds (in Victorian England when a pound was a pound) will be theirs.

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Plot Keywords:

tontine | queen of england | canon | ornithologist | wooden barrel | 

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Taglines:

Virtuous maidens...cunning cousins...dastardly deeds...bodies in barrels...and boxes and boxes of boxes!

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English Swahili

Release Date:

4 July 1966 (UK)

Also Known As:

13.000.000 dollaria zitoun klironomo

Filming Locations:

Englefield Green, Surrey, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Salamander Film Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

André Morell (The Club Butler) and John Mills (Masterman Finsbury) both played Professor Bernard Quatermass: Morell in Quatermass and the Pit and Mills in Quatermass.

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Goofs

The Victorian-age London houses have TV antennae on them.

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Quotes

John Finsbury: Morris! Do you realize it's a criminal offense to wear that coat?
Morris: I'm not wearing any *trousers*!
John Finsbury: ...but that too is a criminal offense!

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Crazy Credits

"Cast [beginning with] Members of the Tontine who came to untimely ends in order of disappearance"

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Connections

References Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

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Soundtracks

"Onward Christian Soldiers"
(1871) (uncredited)
Music from "St. Gertrude" by Arthur Sullivan (1871)
Lyrics by Sabine Baring-Gould (1865)
Sung a cappella by Cicely Courtneidge, Diane Clare and other Salvation Army girls

User Reviews

One Of The Ten Best

Without question, I would put THE WRONG BOX on any list of the ten best movies ever made. Certainly, to my mind, it is the most perfectly conceived and realized comedy to appear in my lifetime (and I have been around for a long spell). All the performances are flawless, but Peter Sellers's Dr. Pratt is, I believe, the best work he ever did on the screen. His characterization is hilariously funny and, at the same time, heart-wrenchingly poignant. It is worth the price of the film simply to see what he does with the kitten and the thermometer (No, not what you expect). I have always suspected that he and Peter Cook improvised their dialogue and these two brilliant satirists display a give-and-take of such high wit and subtlety that it is probably unique in cinema.

An amazing, wonderful, happy motion picture. THE WRONG BOX is a classic.