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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Fantastic!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

This delicious black comedy starts off with some delightfully funny views of bizarre deaths, all men who were part of an "tontine" (insurance bequest) where only the last surviving will receive any cash. Decades go by (as this was given to each of them when they were young boys) and now only two of the men, ironically brothers, survive. With one (John Mills) on his deathbed, the other (Ralph Richardson), a delightfully senile old codger, is out of town, chewing the ear off of anyone he can revel with his plethora of useless knowledge. Mill's son (Michael Caine) is a decent chap, a promising doctor, while Redgrave's wards, nephews Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, come up with a scheme to get their hands on the money when Richardson goes missing. Visiting his uncle (whom he hasn't seen in years), Caine falls in love with his cousin (Nanette Newman), while Cook and Moore try to pass off another corpse as their uncle, assuming that Mills has already croaked. This leads to a hysterical chase at the end, sort of a British early 1900's version of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", with a bit of Monty Python and Benny Hill thrown in.You'll delight at the ensemble cast here, which also includes Peter Sellers in one of his zanier roles as the quack doctor utilized to sign a death certificate for Redgrave, who gets the best lines in the film and is extremely funny. A delightful chase of horse-drawn funeral home carriages includes a ride through a band playing ragtime which has to change to somber funeral music every time these carriages go through the park they are playing in. There's also a Boston Strangler like serial killer and a senile butler, so those who like their comedy's eccentric will enjoy this one to the fullest.

I saw The Wrong Box for the cast, who were undoubtedly some of the best actors of that time, and apart from the ending which was a little too rushed for my tastes I enjoyed every minute of this film. It is filmed beautifully, flowing well from one scene to the next, and the settings and costumes are luscious to look at. John Barry's score is as exciting and memorable as anything else this late great composer ever did, while the story was paced just right for me and very interesting and the writing and situations are unforced and always hilarious(with too many to list). Bryan Forbes I felt directed quite assuredly in alternative to slack, and the cast are simply to die for. Wilfrid Lawson and Peter Sellers especially are comedy gold, though Tony Hancock is also very funny, Michael Caine more than holds his own, John Mills and Ralph Richardson appeal even if their characters aren't as easy initially to warm to and Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are in their prime and seeing them together is worth the viewing alone. All in all, a real joy, can't recommend it enough. 9/10 Bethany Cox

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 ****

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.