The Wrong Box (1966)

Ralph Richardson: Joseph Finsbury

Photos 

Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Detective : All right, come on, come on, what's going on? Come on, what is it? Come on!

  Clergyman : Please, sir, I beg of you, there's a dead man here.

  Detective : All right, no one move!

  [long pause while he realizes it's a church burial] 

  Detective : Finsbury?

  Michael Finsbury , Julia Finsbury , Masterman Finsbury , Joseph Finsbury , Morris , John Finsbury : Yes?

  Detective : MORRIS Finsbury!

  John Finsbury : [turning Morris around and pointing at him]  Yes.

  Detective : Morris Finsbury, I arrest you for stealing £100,000.

  Lawyer Patience : But the money has been returned, sir.

  Detective : Who are you, sir? Some sort of accomplice?

  Lawyer Patience : Certainly not: I am his solicitor.

  Detective : Oh, you've brought your solicitor with you, have you? Yes, I've met your type before.

  Lawyer Patience : No, no, no. I mean, I, I, I'm the administrator of the tontine.

  Detective : Tontine?

  Joseph Finsbury : Named after Lorenzo Tonti, a Neapolitan banker.

  Detective : And who are you, sir?

  Joseph Finsbury : I...

  Masterman Finsbury : [interrupting]  He's nobody. He's my young brother.

  Detective : And who are you, sir?

  Masterman Finsbury : None of your business, sir!

  Detective : I shall have you arrested for indecent exposure!

  Julia Finsbury : Oh!

  Michael Finsbury : My grandfather was recently buried, sir.

  Detective : And who are you, sir?

  Julia Finsbury : He is Michael Finsbury.

  Detective : And who are YOU, madam?

  Michael Finsbury : She is Julia Finsbury, shortly to become... Julia Finsbury!

  Detective : Young man, did you know there was a body in the piano?

  Peacock : I did it.

  Detective : Who is he?

  Michael Finsbury : He is the butler, sir.

  Detective : The butler did it?

  Michael Finsbury : No, sir. I put the body there.

  Detective : Is this true?

  Michael Finsbury : Yes sir.

  Detective : In that case, you are entitled to a reward of £1,000. You are responsible for bringing the Bournemouth Strangler to his just end.

  Michael Finsbury : A, a thousand pounds? Oh, but I-I-I don't, I don't deserve it. The body just arrived in a barrel.

  John Finsbury : I sent it.

  Detective : And who are you, sir?

  Morris Finsbury : He is of diminished responsibility, officer. It was all my doing. If there's any justice in this naughty world, the reward is mine.

  Detective : And WHO are YOU?

  [falls into open grave] 

  Morris Finsbury : You remember me - Morris Finsbury. I was falsely accused of stealing a hundred thousand pounds, whereas in fact it was me, and me alone, who was responsible for bringing the Bournemouth Strangler to his just desserts.

• [Recounting the railway accident] 

  Joseph Finsbury : I was in the water closet of the Bournemouth express when it quite unaccountably exploded, thereby extensively damaging the rest of the train. I can't really think that I was to blame, although at the time I was smoking.

• Joseph Finsbury : [riding with the Hackett funeral party]  It is, as you know, a statistical fact that in London one person dies every twenty-five seconds - which means that it is extremely probable that one of us may not even live to arrive at the ceremony!

• Joseph Finsbury : [carrying on a one-sided conversation with the Bournemouth Strangler]  Ahh, the avocational activities of man are many and varied. Some demand skill - yours for instance! Carpentry... the playing of games with balls of various sizes!