Is It Worth the Watch?

Black Comedy requires a very fragile balance of the macabre and the hilarious. 1966’s British romp, The Wrong Box, finds the perfect equilibrium.

Two elderly brothers, in cahoots with their immediate families, try to murder each other in an attempt to inherit a massive fortune. The bodies and mistaken identities escalate into wild hysterical farce.

Written by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove (who also wrote Broadway’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), the film zigzags from fast paced one-liners to wacky situational comedy to brilliantly performed precision slapstick (although the final chase scene with several horse drawn hearses goes on a bit longer than it needs to).

The cast is uniformly hilarious, with Michael Caine, Ralph Richardson (particularly funny), Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and John Mills leading the laughs. Peter Sellers, playing a cat obsessed doctor way past his prime, earns the biggest guffaws. 

Is It Worth The Watch? I haven’t laughed like this in a long time. If you’ve never seen it, I urge you to check it out. It’s bloody funny.

1966

107 minutes

Director – Bryan Forbes

Starring – Michael Caine, John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Peter Sellers, Nanette Newman

Screenplay – Larry Gilbart, Burt Shevelove