The Wrong Box

Infobox Film
name = The Wrong Box


caption = Film poster
director = Bryan Forbes
producer = Bryan Forbes
Jack Rix
Larry Gelbart
Burt Shevelove
writer = Larry Gelbart
Burt Shevelove
starring = John Mills
Ralph Richardson
Michael Caine
Nanette Newman
Peter Cook
Dudley Moore
music = John Barry
cinematography = Gerry Turpin
editing = Alan Osbiston
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|UK 27 May 1966
runtime = 107 min.
country = UK
awards = Academy 1966:
Best Costume Design
language = English
budget =
amg_id = 1:55626
imdb_id = 0061204

"The Wrong Box" (1966) is a British comedy film made by Salamander Film Productions and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was produced and directed by Bryan Forbes from a screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove, based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne. The film is notable for using intertitles to describe the action, a technique usually associated with silent films.

It stars a number of Britain's best comic actors of the time, including John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Peter Sellers, Irene Handl and Tony Hancock.

Plot

Two elderly brothers Masterman (John Mills) and Joseph Finsbury (Ralph Richardson) are the last surviving members of a tontine, an investment scheme set up many years before, in which the last surviving member stands to receive a fortune. Masterman is attended by his medical student grandson, Michael (Michael Caine), while his greedy cousins Morris (Peter Cook) and John (Dudley Moore) do their best to keep their annoying uncle Joseph alive. Masterman, who hasn't talked to his despised brother in many years, summons Joseph to his "deathbed", intending to kill him so that Michael can get the money.

On the train trip to London, Joseph escapes from his minders, entering a compartment and boring the sole occupant with a litany of trivial facts (something he does with everyone he encounters). The other man who later turns out to be the "Bournemouth Strangler". Joseph later leaves to smoke a cigarette leaving his coat behind, which the strangler puts on. The train then crashes head-on into another one coming the other way, in the confusion, Morris and John find the strangler's mutilated body and mistakenly believe it is that of their uncle.

Morris decides to try to hide this long enough for Masterman to pass away. Morris and John put the body in a barrel and have it shipped to their London home, several doors down from Masterman's residence. However, it is delivered to the Masterman house. Joseph makes his way to London on his own and visits his brother; they quarrel.

Meanwhile, Michael meets and falls in love with Joseph's ward, Julia (Nanette Newman). Things become complicated when Michael discovers the contents of the barrel and, after learning of the dispute between Masterman and Joseph from family butler Peacock (Wilfrid Lawson), assumes that his grandfather has killed his brother. Various misunderstandings and antics result.

Cast

*John Mills as Masterman Finsbury
*Ralph Richardson as Joseph Finsbury
*Michael Caine as Michael Finsbury
*Peter Cook as Morris Finsbury
*Dudley Moore as John Finsbury
*Nanette Newman as Julia Finsbury
*Peter Sellers as Dr. Pratt
*Tony Hancock as Detective
*Wilfrid Lawson as Peacock
*Thorley Walters as Lawyer Patience
*Cicely Courtneidge as Major Martha
*Irene Handl as Mrs. Hackett
*John Le Mesurier as Dr. Slattery

Filming Locations

Pinewood Studios, Iver, Bucks was the main production base for the studio sets and many exteriors, with the Victorian London crescent exteriors being shot on Bath's historic Royal Crescent, complete with TV aerials on the roofs. A couple of years later, "Oliver!" was believed to have used the same location, but in fact the "Who Will Buy" sequence was shot on a specially built set at Shepperton Studios. The funeral coach and horse chase was filmed on Englefield Green, Surrey and surrounding lanes.

External links

* [http://www.railwaycuttings.co.uk/films_wrongbox_txt.htm Railway Cuttings]
* [http://www.britmovie.co.uk/genres/comedy/filmography/034.html Britmovie]