Wrong Box, The (1966)

The Wrong Box (1966), produced and directed by Bryan Forbes.

A retro-Victorian madcap adventure, based on the R.L. Stevenson book which was already zany (and funnier).

Eccentric brothers John Mills and Ralph Richardson are the last surviving members of a tontine: whoever is last alive gets a fortune. Grandkids Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are motivated to ensure the correct outcome, while bewildered Michael Caine tries to do the right thing.

There are a few good bits and one-liners, but it is otherwise pretty feeble. Peter Sellers is great as a crazed doctor with too many cats. The police detective does an amazing Charles Laughton imitation. Caine and Nanette Newman (the director's wife) struggle with repressed passion at every turn, but it drags on.

John Barry score.

I'm not going to try to unravel the DVD availability of this title. I had several entries in my want list from over the years that never appeared. I was about to import a PAL version from the UK when I found this Sony DVD-R at Deep Discount; I didn't even know they carried manufactured on demand discs.

The IMDB says that if you like this film you'll also like Kill Bill vol 2 and The Plague of the Zombies. Marvels of productivity, these computing machines.

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