The Wrong Box is a 1966 British comedy film produced and directed by Bryan Forbes and starring John Mills, Ralph Richardson and a large ensemble cast.

[1] The screenplay was by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove, based on the 1889 novel The Wrong Box by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne.

[2][3] 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 London, are the last surviving members of the tontine.

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 minders, entering a compartment and boring the sole occupant with a diatribe of trivial facts about the history of knitting.

Morris, arriving at Joseph's house, sees a delivery wagon just leaving and assumes that his uncle's body has just been delivered.

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.

That night, Michael hires "undertakers" to dump the corpse into the Thames, but when they arrive, Masterman has just fallen down the staircase, so they take his unconscious body.

The funeral coach and horse chase was filmed in St James's Square, Bath, and on Englefield Green, Surrey, and surrounding lanes.

[4] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Anyone with fond recollections of the Stevenson-Osbourne novel would be well advised to be wary of this version of The Wrong Box.

The thing that is signally lacking in this adaptation is the completely coherent, quietly zany logic which was the original's greatest charm.

"[7] AllMovie wrote, "By turns wacky and weird, The Wrong Box is a welcome alternative to standard issue film comedies.

"[8] 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.