The Wrong Box (1966)

Director:

Bryan Forbes

Writers:

Robert Louis Stevenson (suggested by a novel by) and
Lloyd Osbourne (suggested by a novel by) ...

Release Date:

4 July 1966 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

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!

Plot Keywords:

Tontine | Reward | Train Crash | Convertible | Grave Side Ceremony

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 2 nominations

Cast

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

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Swahili

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:G | UK:U | USA:Approved | Finland:K-8

Filming Locations:

Englefield Green, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Salamander Film Productions

Trivia:

Patrick Cargill was cut out of this film

Goofs:

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

Quotes:

[last lines]
Detective: All right, come on, come on, what's going on? Come on, what is it? Come on!
Clergyman: Please, sir, I beg of you, there's a dead man here.
Detective: All right, no one move!
[long pause while he realizes it's a church burial]
Detective: Finsbury?
Michael Finsbury, Julia Finsbury, Masterman Finsbury, Joseph Finsbury, Morris, John Finsbury: Yes?
Detective: MORRIS Finsbury!
John Finsbury: [turning Morris around and pointing at him] Yes.
Detective: Morris Finsbury, I arrest you for stealing £100,000.
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Soundtrack:

Minuet in G

Little Gem

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.