George Spence Movies

Years before the story proper in The Wrong Box gets under way, a "tontine" is drawn up on behalf several young British boys. Each of the boys' parents had placed 1000 pounds in a pool, to be invested and expanded upon. The resultant fortune will go to the last surving member of the tontine. A series of montages depicts the various demises of the heirs (our favorite occurs when one of them is inadvertently beheaded while being knighted by Queen Victoria). Finally, only two of the tontine participants are left: aged brothers Ralph Richardson and John Mills. On his last legs, Mills is determined that Richardson will not outlive him, and to that end attempts to kill his brother; each attempt fails spectacularly, with the doddering Richardson none the wiser. Standing to benefit from the tontine are Mills' dimwitted med-student son Michael Caine and Richardson's greedy nephews Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. When Richardson is supposedly killed in a train wreck, Cook and Moore don't want the authorities to find out, so they appropriate what they think is their uncle's corpse and ship it home in a box. Thus it is that Caine finds the body of a perfect stranger on his doorstep. The farcical complications begin flying about thick and fast from this point onward. Among the participants in this wacky gigglefest are such formidable talents as Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Wilfred Lawson, Thorley Walters, Norman Rossington, Irene Handl and Cicely Courtenedge. Based on a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Wrong Box is a delightful harkback to the glory days of Britain's Ealing comedies. We were so wrapped up in the story that we didn't even notice all those TV antennae sprouting up on the rooftops of Victorian London. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A professor of astronomy, David Garrett (Ian Carmichael), is involved with a highly confidential project to develop missiles. He runs into an old friend from the Soviet Union who is now the world chess champion. As David soon discovers, the champion is with a team working for sinister businessman Hubert Marek (Curt Jugens). Marek intends to have David abducted while making it appear as if the professor has defected. Though he narrowly escapes one trap in England, David must continually ascertain who may be in on the group's scheme if he is to survive. Director Cy Endfield enjoyed much greater success earlier in 1964 with Zulu, his historical action feature about a native uprising in Africa. David Stone wrote the screenplay for Hide and Seek, adapted by Robert Foshko from Harold Greene's story. Stone and masterful cinematographer Gilbert Taylor (A Hard Day's Night, Dr. Strangelove, Star Wars) would soon have another project in common: Roman Polanski's psychological thriller, Repulsion. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Give Me the Stars is a British comedy aimed squarely at the regional audiences of the 1940s. Lenni Lynn plays an American girl (complete with a line of unconvincing slang) who heads to Scotland on family business. She appoints herself protector of her cranky Scots grandfather (Will Fyffe), who of course is not nearly as helpless as she believes. While tolerably produced, Give Me the Stars rather resembles an elongated music hall sketch. But Will Fyffe was enormously popular, and the film brought in the shillings. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi