Kurt at 17:01, 23 February 2023

2023-02-23T17:01:37Z

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	~~{{EngvarB\|date=May 2013}}~~
	~~{{Use dmy dates\|date=April 2022}}~~
	{{Infobox film		{{Infobox film
	~~\| name = The Wrong Box~~
	\| image = The Wrong Box poster.jpg		\| image = The Wrong Box poster.jpg
	\| caption = Theatrical release poster		\| caption = Theatrical release poster

Kurt: /* External links */

2022-12-22T22:53:53Z

External links

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	* {{AllMovie title\|55626}}		* {{AllMovie title\|55626}}
	* {{BritMovie title\|The-Wrong-Box_1966}}		* {{BritMovie title\|The-Wrong-Box_1966}}

	~~{{Bryan Forbes}}~~

	{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrong Box, The}}		{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrong Box, The}}

Kurt at 16:24, 6 October 2022

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	~~{{About\|the film\|the novel\|The Wrong Box (novel)}}~~
	{{EngvarB\|date=May 2013}}		{{EngvarB\|date=May 2013}}
	{{Use dmy dates\|date=April 2022}}		{{Use dmy dates\|date=April 2022}}
	{{Infobox film		{{Infobox film
	\| name = The Wrong Box		\| name = The Wrong Box
	\| image = The Wrong Box.jpg		\| image = The Wrong Box poster.jpg
	\| caption = Theatrical release poster		\| caption = Theatrical release poster
	\| director = [[Bryan Forbes]]		\| director = [[Bryan Forbes]]
	\| producer = Bryan Forbes<br>Jack Rix<br>[[Larry Gelbart]]<br>[[Burt Shevelove]]		\| producer = Bryan Forbes<br>Jack Rix<br>[[Larry Gelbart]]<br>[[Burt Shevelove]]
	\| writer = [[Larry Gelbart]]<br>[[Burt Shevelove]]		\| writer = [[w:Larry Gelbart\|Larry Gelbart]]<br>[[w:Burt Shevelove\|Burt Shevelove]]
	\| based_on = {{based on\|''[[The Wrong Box (novel)\|The Wrong Box]]''\|[[Robert Louis Stevenson]] and [[Lloyd Osbourne]]}}		\| based_on = {{based on\|''[[w:The Wrong Box (novel)\|The Wrong Box]]''\|[[w:Robert Louis Stevenson\|Robert Louis Stevenson]] and [[w:Lloyd Osbourne\|Lloyd Osbourne]]}}
	\| starring = {{Plainlist\|		\| starring = {{Plainlist\|
	* [[John Mills]]		* [[John Mills]]

Kurt: 1 revision imported

2022-10-06T15:47:35Z

1 revision imported

← Older revision	Revision as of 10:47, 6 October 2022
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en>Ser Amantio di Nicolao: /* External links */add Category:1960s British films

2022-09-04T17:18:24Z

External links: add Category:1960s British films

New page

{{About|the film|the novel|The Wrong Box (novel)}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Wrong Box
| image = The Wrong Box.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = [[Bryan Forbes]]
| producer = Bryan Forbes<br>Jack Rix<br>[[Larry Gelbart]]<br>[[Burt Shevelove]]
| writer = [[Larry Gelbart]]<br>[[Burt Shevelove]]
| based_on = {{based on|''[[The Wrong Box (novel)|The Wrong Box]]''|[[Robert Louis Stevenson]] and [[Lloyd Osbourne]]}}
| starring = {{Plainlist|
* [[John Mills]]
* [[Ralph Richardson]]
* [[Michael Caine]]
* [[Peter Cook]]
* [[Dudley Moore]]
* [[Nanette Newman]]
* [[Tony Hancock]]
* [[Peter Sellers]]}}
| music = [[John Barry (composer)|John Barry]]
| cinematography = [[Gerry Turpin]]
| editing = [[Alan Osbiston]]
| studio = Salamander Film Productions
| distributor = [[Columbia Pictures]]
| released = {{Film date|df=yes|1966|05|27|London, UK}}
| runtime = 107 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget =
}}

'''''The Wrong Box''''' is a 1966 British [[comedy film]] produced and directed by [[Bryan Forbes]] from a screenplay by [[Larry Gelbart]] and [[Burt Shevelove]], based on the 1889 novel ''[[The Wrong Box (novel)|The Wrong Box]]'' by [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] and [[Lloyd Osbourne]]. It was made by Salamander Film Productions and distributed by [[Columbia Pictures]].<ref name=bfi>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bb3d462|title=The Wrong Box (1966)|publisher=British Film Institute}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yyqc0Qa6b60C&q=the+wrong+box+1966+literary+sources+in+film&pg=PA443|title=The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film|first=Alan|last=Goble|date=1 January 1999|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=9783110951943|page=443}}</ref>

The cast includes a number of Britain's leading actors and [[comic actors]] of the time, including [[John Mills]], [[Ralph Richardson]], [[Michael Caine]], [[Peter Cook]], [[Dudley Moore]], [[Peter Sellers]], [[Irene Handl]], [[Nanette Newman]], [[Wilfrid Lawson (actor)|Wilfrid Lawson]], and [[Tony Hancock]]. Included in the cast are other actors who later became more well-known, including [[John Le Mesurier]], [[John Junkin]], [[Leonard Rossiter]], [[Nicholas Parsons]], [[Jeremy Lloyd]], [[Graham Stark]], [[Thorley Walters]], [[Norman Rossington]], [[David Lodge (actor)|David Lodge]], [[Juliet Mills]], and [[Norman Bird]]. [[Cicely Courtneidge]] also appears, as [[The Salvation Army|Salvation Army]] Major Martha and [[The Temperance Seven]] also appear (as themselves).<ref name=tcm>{{cite web|url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/96315/The-Wrong-Box/articles.html|title=The Wrong Box (1966) - Articles - TCM.com|website=Turner Classic Movies}}</ref><ref name=bfi/>

==Plot==
In the early 19th century, a lawyer explains to a group of young boys that a form of [[tontine]] has been organised; £1,000 has been invested for each child (£20,000 in total), but only the last survivor will receive all the capital and earned interest. Sixty-three years later, elderly brothers Masterman and Joseph Finsbury, who live next to each other in [[Victorian era|Victorian]] [[London]], are the last surviving members of the tontine.

Masterman is attended by his unpromising medical student grandson Michael Finsbury, and, although Masterman has not talked to his despised brother in many years, he sends Michael next door to summon Joseph to see him. Michael is greeted by Julia, Joseph's granddaughter. They see each other often on the street and secretly admire each other. She explains Joseph is in [[Bournemouth]] with her cousins. Meanwhile, Julia's cousins, Morris and John, receive a telegram from Michael in their [[boarding house]] in Bournemouth, saying that Masterman is dying.

On the train trip to London, Joseph escapes from his grandson [[minder]]s, entering a compartment and boring the sole occupant with a [[diatribe]] of trivial facts about the history of knitting. Joseph goes to smoke a cigarette, leaving behind his coat, which the occupant, "the Bournemouth Strangler", dons. The train then collides with another one. Morris and John find a mangled body wearing their uncle's coat and assume their uncle is dead. To protect their interest in the tontine, they hide the body in the woods. Morris tells John to crate the body up and post it to London. Meanwhile, Joseph wanders away from the accident scene.

In London, Michael gets a telegram telling him to expect a crate containing a statue. Morris arrives and mistakes the elderly butler, Peacock, for Masterman.

Morris decides to try to hide the body long enough for Masterman to die, and then claim Joseph died of a heart attack upon hearing the news. Morris and John plot to ship the body to Joseph's London home where Julia lives. John sends the body in a large barrel. Joseph makes his way to London on his own and visits his brother. Masterman makes several failed attempts to kill his brother, with Joseph oblivious to the attempts. They separate after quarrelling. Meanwhile, the barrel containing the body is delivered to Masterman's house by mistake, and Joseph is asked to sign for the barrel for "Mr Finsbury". Minutes later, the crate containing the statue, also addressed to "Mr Finsbury", which Michael is expecting, is mistakenly delivered to Joseph's house.

Morris, arriving at Joseph's house, sees a [[delivery wagon]] just leaving and assumes that his uncle's body has just been delivered. Morris then goes to Dr. Pratt to try to obtain a blank [[death certificate]]. Michael helps the delivery men move the crate into Joseph's house. This stirs the passions of both Julia and Michael and they kiss for the first time. Michael draws back and says they cannot do this because they are cousins; then they discover that they were both adopted orphans, thus unrelated by blood.

Michael discovers the body in the barrel and, after learning of the "altercation" between Masterman and Joseph from Peacock, assumes that his grandfather killed his brother. When Julia arrives with some broth for Masterman, Michael hides the body in a piano. That night, Michael hires "[[undertaker]]s" to dump the corpse into the [[River Thames|Thames]], but when they arrive, Masterman has just fallen down the staircase, so they take his unconscious body. Seeing this, Morris gleefully assumes Masterman has died.

Morris and John go to claim the tontine, producing the fake death certificate. The lawyer tells them it is now worth £111,000.

Rescued from the river, Masterman is returned home by [[the Salvation Army]], who assume he drowned himself. Julia orders a fancy [[coffin]] for him. Morris orders a cheap coffin to remove the mutilated body, but it is delivered to the wrong house, and Michael sells the piano, unaware the body is still in it. The police become involved when that body is discovered. Masterman sits up as the coffin is being taken away.

The cousins make off with the tontine money in a [[hearse]]. Michael and Julia chase Morris and John aboard another hearse. They then encounter a real [[funeral procession]]. After a confusing crash, Morris and John realise they have a body instead of the money. The tontine money is about to be buried when they grab it and run off. The box bursts open, and money is blown around the cemetery. Joseph pops up from the open grave just as Masterman arrives. The lawyer arrives to say the tontine has yet to be won. The police detective arrives, and Morris is arrested. They ask who put the body in the piano, as there is a £1000 reward for catching the Bournemouth Strangler. A new argument begins.

==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
* [[Valentine Dyall]] as Oliver Pike Harmsworth
* [[Leonard Rossiter]] as Vyvyan Alistair Montague (killed in tontine)
* [[Wilfrid Lawson (actor)|Wilfrid Lawson]] as Peacock
* [[Thorley Walters]] as Lawyer Patience
* [[Cicely Courtneidge]] as Major Martha
* [[Diane Clare]] as Mercy
* [[Gerald Sim]] as First Undertaker
* [[Irene Handl]] as Mrs. Hackett
* [[John Le Mesurier]] as Dr. Slattery
* [[Nicholas Parsons]] as Alan Frazer Scrope
* [[James Villiers]] as Sydney Whitcombe Sykes
* [[Graham Stark]] as Ian Scott Fife (killed in tontine)
* [[Jeremy Lloyd]] as Brian Allen Harvey
* [[Peter Graves, 8th Baron Graves|Peter Graves]] as Military Officer
* [[John Junkin]] as 1st Engine Driver
* [[Timothy Bateson]] as Official
* [[Norman Bird]] as Spiritual
* [[Norman Rossington]] as first hooligan

==Filming locations==
[[Pinewood Studios]], [[Iver]], [[Buckinghamshire]], was the main production base for the studio sets and many exteriors, with the Victorian London [[crescent (architecture)|crescent]] exteriors being shot on [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]]'s historic [[Royal Crescent]], complete with TV aerials on the roofs. The funeral coach and horse chase was filmed in [[St James's Square, Bath]], and on [[Englefield Green]], [[Surrey]], and surrounding lanes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.reelstreets.com/index.php/component/films/?task=view&id=1136&film_ref=wrong_box|title=Reel Streets|website=reelstreets.com}}</ref>

==Reception==
[[Bosley Crowther]] wrote in ''[[The New York Times]]'', "Perhaps the best of the clowning is the little bit Mr. Sellers does as this drink-sodden, absent-minded skip-jack, fumbling foolishly and a little sadly among his cats. But Mr. Richardson is splendid as a scholarly charlatan, and Mr. Mills and Mr. Lawson are capital as a couple of fuddy-duddy crooks. Sure, the whole nutty business is tumbled together haphazardly in the script that has been written—or maybe scrambled—by Larry Gelbert and Burt Shevelove. Some sections and bits are funnier than others. Some are labored and dull. It is that sort of story, that sort of comedy. But it adds up to a lively lark";<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/96315/The-Wrong-Box/other-reviews.html|title=The Wrong Box (1966) - Other Reviews - TCM.com|website=Turner Classic Movies}}</ref> while more recently, Dennis Schwartz called it a "Mildly amusing silly black comedy."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://homepages.sover.net/~ozus/wrongbox.htm|title=wrongbox|first=Dennis|last=Schwartz|website=homepages.sover.net}}</ref> [[AllMovie]] wrote, "By turns wacky and weird, ''The Wrong Box'' is a welcome alternative to standard issue film comedies."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-wrong-box-v55626/review|title=The Wrong Box (1966) - Bryan Forbes - Review - AllMovie|publisher=AllMovie}}</ref>

In his autobiography ''What's it All About?'', Michael Caine wrote of the movie's reception, that the film "is so British that it met with a gentle success in most places except Britain, where it was a terrible flop. I suppose this was because the film shows us exactly as the world sees us - as eccentric, charming and polite - but the British knew better that they were none of these things, and it embarrassed us."<ref name=tcm/>

==Awards and nominations==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year
!Awards
!Category
!Nominee
!Result
|-
| rowspan="3"|1967|| rowspan="3"|[[20th British Academy Film Awards|British Academy Film Awards]] || Best British Costume || [[Julie Harris (costume designer)|Julie Harris]] || {{Won}}
|-
| Best British Actor || Ralph Richardson || {{Nom}}
|-
| Best British Art Direction || [[Ray Simm]] || {{Nom}}
|-
|}

==References==
<references />

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0061204}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|wrong_box}}
* {{AllMovie title|55626}}
* {{BritMovie title|The-Wrong-Box_1966}}

{{Bryan Forbes}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrong Box, The}}
[[Category:1966 films]]
[[Category:1966 comedy films]]
[[Category:British black comedy films]]
[[Category:Films based on British novels]]
[[Category:Films based on works by Robert Louis Stevenson]]
[[Category:BAFTA winners (films)]]
[[Category:Films directed by Bryan Forbes]]
[[Category:Films scored by John Barry (composer)]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Larry Gelbart]]
[[Category:Films set in England]]
[[Category:Films set in the 1880s]]
[[Category:Films shot at Pinewood Studios]]
[[Category:Columbia Pictures films]]
[[Category:1960s English-language films]]
[[Category:1960s British films]]

The Wrong Box - Revision history

Kurt at 17:01, 23 February 2023

Kurt: /* External links */

Kurt at 16:24, 6 October 2022

Kurt: 1 revision imported

en>Ser Amantio di Nicolao: /* External links */add Category:1960s British films