Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

aramis-112-804880 If you like comedies where adults behave like children, "The Wrong Box" (based loosely on a yarn co-written by TREASURE ISLAND's Robert Louis Stevenson) is at the top of that genre's heap.British stage and screen stalwarts John Mills and Ralph Richardson play warring brothers named Finsbury, the final members of a tontine (for the purposes of this movie, a "game" where the last survivor snags all the loot). Young Michael Caine is Mills' grandson, in love with Richardson's ward Julia (Nanette Newman). Comics Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are Richardson's rapscallion nephews, desperate to keep the old man ticking until he cops the lolly (when they think he's won, they refer to him in the past tense). Wilfred Lawson, alcoholic actor who famously never forgot a line no matter how much he imbibed, is Mills' doddering butler. For various reasons, they each want their side to win (Lawson's butler, for instance, hasn't been paid in seven years).But when a body in a barrel (the wrong box) rolls up to the Mills/Finsbury residence in error, characters already in a heightened sense of excitement rush about frantically trying to hide, recover, or identify it. Peter Sellers is the "venal" Doctor Pratt. Inundated with cats, the pixilated doctor dispenses death certificates (and poisons) for a fee. Tony Hancock, practically unknown in America but a long-time favorite comic in England, pulls out all his well-worn stops in his last-gasp movie as the Inspector who tries valiantly to tie up the loose ends of a case where nearly all the suspects have the same surname. Choreographer/dancer/actor Tutte Lemkow turns in one of his best menacing performances in a small but pivotal role as a minor-league Jack the Ripper.Other members of the tontine, who meet suitably (and sometimes hilariously) gruesome ends, include a roll call of rising British talent (Jeremy Lloyd, James Villiers, Graham Stark, Nicholas Parsons) and veterans (Valentine Dyall, radio's "Man in Black").Amusing vignettes are also essayed by John Junkin (as an engine driver), Thorley Walters (as a fey lawyer) and Cicely Courtneidge (leader of a Salvation Army wanna-be band which wears an S on their collars almost like the old German national socialist police force; I suppose that's the filmmakers' statement against charity).The romp is full of twists like a good mystery, but the mystery (such as it is; the viewer is always in command of the facts) is merely a skeleton on which to hang the actors' humorous escapades. The final scene is thrilling, seeing so much talent gathered together in a cemetery (Mills, Richardson, Caine, Cook, Moore, Newman, Lawson, Walters--and Irene Handl, who jumps in at the eleventh hour. And Hancock has pride of place, strutting before them while desperately trying to work out which Finsbury is which.If you prefer humor served up dark but not bitter by the best in the business, roll a sip of this over your palate.

Christy Leskovar This is laugh-out-loud funny. Clever hilarious dialogue, zany story. The students of a boys' school in 19th century England are told that their parents have enrolled them in a tontine. Each family put a sum of money into the tontine, and the last member alive will get the whole kitty. It's sort of like The Last Man's Club of which my grandpa Peter was a member with his First World War chums, but that was for a bottle of whiskey. The story then shows the very bizarre ways the members of the tontine meet their demise until only two are left, who are brothers who haven't spoken to each other in years. A young Michael Caine plays the grandson of one of the brothers. The rest of the movie is a madcap chase for the tontine. Peter Sellers has a small part as a drunk, dishonorable doctor. No matter how small the part, Peter Sellers is always unforgettable.

Michael Neumann A madcap cross-country chase for an inherited fortune by two elderly brothers and their many offspring ought to be funnier than this, especially with so many familiar names and faces along for the ride. Viewers with a weakness for the mugging style of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore might be entertained, but others may find themselves longing for more scenes with trivia freak Ralph Richardson, and a bigger part for Peter Sellers, seen all-too briefly as a dotty MD with a fondness for cats. Elsewhere the various routine plot complications and misunderstandings are (at best) fitfully amusing, but the presentation is rarely more than just plain silly, with coy title cards ("Disaster Ensues!") providing a labored chuckle along the way. The script was based on a Robert Louis Stevenson short story, which would explain the otherwise gratuitous Victorian setting and trappings.

moonspinner55 Suggested by Robert Louis Stevenson's and Lloyd Osbourne's story, this outrageous comedy involves a pair of estranged, elderly brothers in Victorian England--the last two survivors of a decades old lottery--who, at different points, are thought deceased by their relatives, two of whom will go to any lengths to retrieve the boodle. Director Bryan Forbes (who also produced) wouldn't be my pick to helm a crazy-quilt British farce involving comedic misunderstandings, a carriage race in funeral buggies, and a mad scramble for money in a cemetery! Forbes had never cut loose before (and hasn't done so since), and so his expected 'gentleman-like' pacing occasionally rears its head. Still this script, penned by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove, opens with some high black comedy...and Forbes really seems to get into the general silliness of the situation. The all-star cast (including Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and Peter Sellers in a guest role as a befuddled doctor) is encouraged to play it over-the-top, and there are laughs nearly all the way through. **1/2 from ****