begob The heirs of two feuding elderly brothers who are the remaining beneficiaries of a Tontine lottery struggle to make sure they're on the side of the last man standing.This opens on a promising scene, where the schoolboys who stand to benefit from the lottery are lectured to by a Dickensian master, but then moves through a montage of untimely deaths that will tell you whether this movie is for you. I found the montage lame and underdeveloped, and nothing that followed improved the experience.Judging by other reviews it's clear comedy is a subjective experience, but it's hard not to see how poorly scripted this story is, how hard the actors struggle to give life to the material, and how many jokes were left on the table.The cast is wonderful, but I did feel sorry for them - especially Caine - having to deliver some really poor lines. Music is whimsical. Nothing else to report. Grrr.Overall: Disappointment verging on resentment.

Useful_Reviewer This is the kind of comedy that entertains with twists and turns in the plot. One crazy event leads to another, all caused by mix-ups, assumptions and misunderstandings. That said, it is well written and quite funny in a 1960's British way, with plenty of satire to go along with the zany happenings of the story. Michael Caine, Dudley Moore, and Peter Cook are all good, and Peter Sellers is fantastic in a small role. But ultimately the film comes down to a cleverly crafted plot that was derived from an old novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne.The movie is clean enough to watch with your family, though the young kids will miss much of the humor, and some of the comedy comes from the fact that characters pretend to care about the deaths of older family members, when in fact they don't.

mark-whait It has never been lost on me that Caine's first 'big three' movies were as good a trio of introductory pictures as you could get. This was the triple whammy that set his career off onto a higher plane, and I cannot think of another actor before or since that has been fortunate enough to star in three such monumental films one after the other to launch a career into another stratosphere. The only other modern day actor that I could think of that came close was Ewan MacGregor, whose double duo of Shallow Grave and Trainspotting were phenomenal - however, sandwiched in between these was the rather forgettable Blue Juice. (Incidentally, despite the British media's attempts to turn Jude Law into the 'new' Michael Caine for the modern generation, for me Ewan MacGregor is the better bet, and for my money a better all round actor). I then looked at actors like Harrison Ford and Sean Connery - but even their breakthrough movies were interspersed with lesser known titles - Ford may have become an instant success following Star Wars, but there was still the fact that Heroes and Force 10 From Navarone came along before The Empire Strikes Back - hardly ground breaking titles that live long in the memory to this day. Similarly, despite Connery having the considerable clout of starring in Dr No and From Russia With Love back to back, his next release was Woman Of Straw before the next Bond episode hit us. Timing, release dates, whatever the cause, Caine's big three provide an insurmountable fact that moviegoers back then were hit between the eyes with a trio of films designed to leave them reeling at their sheer quality, as well as the growing stature of the very man who starred in all three. So it is reasonable to suggest that with such firepower already behind him, Caine would inevitably star in a picture that would be, not exactly a flop, but a damp squib compared to what had gone before. And that damp squib was The Wrong Box. It's a perfectly good natured light comedy, but is another example (like The Bulldog Breed) of a Caine fan suffering for his art - this film is really a showcase for the considerable talents of Ralph Richardson and John Mills. Caine's contribution is perfectly acceptable here, but overall the film is dated and tiresome, and is actually one of Caine's rarer known movies. Throw in the fact that Tony Hancock, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were also in the cast, and it is fair to say that gives you an idea of the type of movie this was. There are even turns from John Le Mesurier and Irene Handl who would of course be reunited again with Sir Michael by the end of the decade in The Italian Job.

jnlife 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