A typical all-star extravaganza of the 1960s (which I had also first caught on Italian TV) based on a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, this black comedy perhaps aspires to be a zany updating of KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949) as it revolves around the assorted mishaps of various people on the way to gaining the proceeds of a lottery. However, being patchy overall insufficiently witty and often resorting to heavy-handed comedy which outstays its welcome it fails to achieve that film's level of artistic merit (culminating in a fracas at a graveyard, then, it also brings to mind the contemporaneous THE LOVED ONE [1965]); however, we do begin promisingly enough with a number of nice skits wherein the long line of candidates to the fortune is severely diminished (there's even a gag involving an accident-prone Queen Victoria!).
As for the remarkable cast, it's led by Ralph Richardson (amusingly bugging everybody with his pomposity a coachman whispers to himself "God save us!" at Richardson's hope that they meet again) and John Mills (atypically involved in pratfalls, especially when attempting to do in brother Richardson: the two live next door to each other and, yet, haven't spoken in 40 years!) as the last survivors of the deadly tontine. Also on hand are Michael Caine (as Mills' grandson) who shares a rather boring, and unnecessarily flashily-presented, romance with Nanette Newman (Richardson's ward and director Forbes' real-life wife), Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (making for a characteristically unscrupulous albeit bumbling duo incidentally, I should get to their maligned spoof rendition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES [1978] presently), Wilfrid Lawson (who's fun as Mills' doddering butler) and Thorley Walters (the lawyer charged with handing over the money to the eventual winner). Besides, we also get guest spots by Peter Sellers and Tony Hancock in decidedly ill-advised character turns as eccentric doctor and befuddled Police Inspector respectively. The evocative period detail (courtesy of cinematographer Gerry Turpin and production designer Ray Simm) and John Barry's lovely score are flawless, however.
For the record, the Spanish(!) DVD edition I acquired is hardly optimal being not only regrettably panned-and-scanned but even going out-of-synch during the climax yet it will have to suffice for the moment.
As for the remarkable cast, it's led by Ralph Richardson (amusingly bugging everybody with his pomposity a coachman whispers to himself "God save us!" at Richardson's hope that they meet again) and John Mills (atypically involved in pratfalls, especially when attempting to do in brother Richardson: the two live next door to each other and, yet, haven't spoken in 40 years!) as the last survivors of the deadly tontine. Also on hand are Michael Caine (as Mills' grandson) who shares a rather boring, and unnecessarily flashily-presented, romance with Nanette Newman (Richardson's ward and director Forbes' real-life wife), Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (making for a characteristically unscrupulous albeit bumbling duo incidentally, I should get to their maligned spoof rendition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES [1978] presently), Wilfrid Lawson (who's fun as Mills' doddering butler) and Thorley Walters (the lawyer charged with handing over the money to the eventual winner). Besides, we also get guest spots by Peter Sellers and Tony Hancock in decidedly ill-advised character turns as eccentric doctor and befuddled Police Inspector respectively. The evocative period detail (courtesy of cinematographer Gerry Turpin and production designer Ray Simm) and John Barry's lovely score are flawless, however.
For the record, the Spanish(!) DVD edition I acquired is hardly optimal being not only regrettably panned-and-scanned but even going out-of-synch during the climax yet it will have to suffice for the moment.