Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

At some point the brothers Finsbury must have had some second thoughts about entering that lottery for life which is what the Tontine is. And it's true as Ralph Richardson reminds us in the film that the concept is named after the 17th century Italian banker who came up with the idea.Essentially a Tontine is a life's lottery, several folks put up an initial investment and we of course presume it is in the hands of some really conservative bankers who don't go into something wildly speculative. If that's done the winner of the Tontine is the last survivor among the initial investors.Wouldn't you know it, but the last survivors as it turns out are a pair of feuding brothers, the Finsburys played by John Mills and Ralph Richardson. These two guys don't speak on general principles to start with, but with over 100,000 in pound sterling up for grabs, these two old coots are at each other and if not them, their respective heirs.Worst of course is Dudley Moore and Peter Cook who are Richardson's nephews, presumably on his wife's side. They hear Mills is dying and Mills is one of those characters who's been dying for a couple of generations and buries everybody around him. But in order for them to inherit Mills has to go first and then Richardson and it's all their'sThus the black comedy begins with the two schemers trying to work out a pair of deaths in the correct order. It may be black comedy, but it's also Murphy's law comedy, but Murphy never dealt with some of the situations thrown at the cast.Best in the film in my opinion is Ralph Richardson. He's one of those pedantic scholarly types who has learned a lot on just about everything and who doesn't hesitate to show off his knowledge and bore everyone around him to tears. It's no wonder Mills rises from what is thought to be his deathbed to strangle him, just to shut him up. It's the best scene in the film, marvelously played by two of the best from the British cinema. So if you think your family has problems just think about the Finsbury brothers and what they and their relations go through in The Wrong Box.

If this is British humor, forget it.I thought I had seen miserable films and then I found the definition of miserable-this film. This is an absolute colossal bomb.In 1963's 'The Mad World' we saw what people would go through for money. This film reminded me of the old adage-Where there's a will, there is family.This daffy film begins with children being drawn into a lottery. The last survivor wins. It then proceeds to show how many of these youngsters grew and met untimely deaths-through wars, mountain climbings, cave-ins, duels gone wrong,etc. This in itself became ridiculous and absolutely tedious to view.Two old brothers survive-John Mills and Ralph Richardson. The problem is not only with these 2 nit-wits but their grandsons. When one brother is thought to be killed in a train wreck, the other part of the family things they will fool the other brother's family by chicanery and therefore obtain the money.While all this misery is going on, there's a strangler in London on the loose.The best part of this film was when the screen lit up-The End.

somehow i missed the wrong box. in college i showed the on campus current films as well as classic films. but for years i have heard about wrong box or read about it. For the last few years, esp since i ran across IMDb, GREAT SITE, i looked for it in film houses & still could not find it. A few months ago i found a place that printed public domain films & bought a copy. ugh. Maybe its the years or too much anticipation but i was very disiappointed in the film. It had its funny moments but i felt the plot plodded along until the search for the box. Peter Sellers was wasted.Caine , Mills & Richardson, Cooke & Moore all did a good job of acting but there did not seem to be enough coherence in the plot to interest me. I will not say DON'T SEE IT because it may be someone else's cup of tea. I'd rather watch Peter Sellers in The Party. IF you would like to purchase my copy(seen once-DVD, reg. view I think), contact me at jn1010life@yahoo.com

Funny and often laugh out loud hilarious story of two brothers (John Mills and Ralph Richardson), one of whom must outlive the other in order to win a Tontine started at their boys school and going to the final survivor of the class. What transpires is "The Wrong Box," a 1966 film directed by Bryan Forbes and also starring Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Wilfred Lawson, Nanette Newman (Mrs. Forbes) and Peter Sellers.The first ten minutes or so of the movie is hilarious, as it shows the demise of the other students over the years. Regarding the surviving Finsbury brothers, one side of has Caine and his grandfather Mills, who is desperate to win, so he summons his brother to his "deathbed" in order to kill him, in one of the funniest scenes in the movie. On the other side, Cook and Moore are Richardson's nephews, who have devoted themselves to keeping their uncle alive. They needn't have bothered because he can't be killed anyway. He walks away from a train crash, but there's a mix-up, and he's believed dead. The nephews are desperate to cover this up until Mills dies. When they go to bury what they think is his body, Cook makes Moore do it rather than put his hands in the dirt, insisting "petal-soft hands are the mark of a great ornithologist." Both Richardson, as the fact-spewing brother, and Mills, as the crazy old coot with murder in his heart, are excellent, as is the rest of the cast. Michael Caine is young and handsome here. Peter Sellers as a shady, cat-loving doctor is a riot. Wilfred Lawson, who plays Mills' butler, nearly steals the film as the elderly servant so old he practically has rigor mortis. One of the best moments is when Michael Caine sends him to the door telling him to go slowly - it already takes him ten minutes to get there, and Lawson starts to go to the door and mumbles to himself, "I'll slow it down." Too much. The pretty ingénue, Newman, had been married to director Forbes for ten years before the making of this film. She's still married to him.Lots of fun, with a crazy finale befitting the film.