This is a funny British comedy based on a novel by Robert Lewis Stevenson an author not exactly known for his comedy writing. The screenplay was co-written by Larry Gelbart a talented guy who had been a joke writer for Bob Hope and created the TV series, MASH. Gelbart was a very American writer for such a British film.
The Wrong Box has an outstanding cast of Brit actors beginning with Ralph Richardson and John Mills as two ancient brothers trying to outlive each other so they can inherit a "tontine," a personal lottery. They are surrounded by family members with various degrees of crookedness and intelligence who include Michael Caine, Dudley Moore, Nanette Newman and Peter Cook.
There are also hilarious performances by Peter Sellers as a crazy cat loving doctor and Wilfrid Lawson as the very out of it family butler who hasn't been paid in 7 years.
The film was directed by Bryan Forbes a British screenwriter who had worked for and had been a friend of macho Warner Brothers action director Raoul Walsh. Walsh supposedly got Forbes drunk and put him on a boat back to England after he told Forbes he had no business getting mixed up in Hollywood.
A classic and funny British farce, the running time is 107 minutes.
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